Red Blossom
by Yamisui
Summary: After Orochimaru's attack on Konoha, Kakashi's team embarks on a Wave Country mission, risking war with the Mist Ninja. There Naruto and his friends must face Shinkuhana...an assassin's jutsu that brings instant death to both its victim AND its wielder...
1. A Chance For Glory!

_Author's Note: STOP RIGHT HERE if you haven't seen up to Naruto Episode #80! _

_If you haven't, spoilers follow immediately! _

_This story takes place in the span of time after the great Chuunin Exam arc and right before Itachi Uchiha comes to Konoha after Naruto. (Think of this story as a bridge between the two.) Though Orochimaru has been driven away and temporarily defeated, the Third Hokage is dead, and Konoha Village is in shambles after the war. At this point Jiraiya hasn't seen Naruto since before the Chuunin Exam finals, and neither has he made his presence known to anyone in the village. Konoha is under drastic reconstruction, and, in order to pay for damage repairs, the Leaf Ninja are hiring themselves out with near-desperate zeal. . ._

_Before we begin, some terms defined:_

_Kunai: the knives that the ninja use_

_Tanuki: a "raccoon-dog"_

_Shuriken: ninja stars_

_Levels of Ninja-hood: Genin (lowest), Chuunin, Jounin_

_Mizukage: the Mist Village's equivalent of Konoha's Hokage_

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**oo Chapter 1: The Water-Lord's Request? A Chance For Glory! oo**

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

_It was autumn then._

_The crimson leaves fell soft upon the road;_

_The blood of ninja, trampled underfoot._

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

_Beneath the maple trees, the young man stood with his family, keeping vigil over the grave of his sensei. The afternoon sun, which was sinking slowly beyond the wood, turned the leaves to crimson as they fell. They drifted down gently in a soft rain of blood, falling at the feet of those gathered there for the funeral, and on the grave itself. The young man's face was taut with grief, but he allowed no tears to come. That was the shinobi way. _

_The Third Hokage laid a hand on his shoulder. He could scarcely feel it through the thick vest that he wore, which marked him as one of the Jounin. The gesture was meant to comfort, but he was too numb with shock to be comforted. Neither tears nor comfort could raise the dead. _

"_I know what a blow this is to you," the Third murmured. "And no one faults you for your loyalty. But sorrow should not be the force that shapes the course of your life. You're still very young. His memory will fade in your heart one day, for his spirit has moved on to where you can't follow."_

_A soft breeze stole through the forest, and the young man brushed absently at his hair to keep it from blowing over his forehead protector and across his brow. Numbly, he thought, 'You're wrong. There is one way I can follow him.' But he didn't dare speak this aloud in the presence of the Third, for even the Sarutobi didn't know of the secret that he carried. His sensei had shared that secret, but his sensei had never revealed it, and now took it with him to the grave. In more ways than one, the Fourth's death had left him utterly alone._

"_My decision to quit ANBU wasn't rashly made," the young man murmured in reply. "I've put some thought into this."_

_More leaves drifted onto the stone obelisk that marked the gravesite, and finally one of the attending Sarutobi clan stepped forward to sweep them away. The Third's grip tightened on his shoulder. _

"_You mustn't let this sorrow shape the man you become," the Third insisted. "I don't expect you to see that now, but in time . . ."_

_The young man turned a faint smile upward over one shoulder---a smile that the older man could scarcely see through the cloth that covered it._

"_I'm not condemning myself to solitude," he said calmly. There was a terrible, beautiful serenity in his voice---the peace that comes only after a man has cried until he can cry no more. "Not at all. That was not my intent. Because I've quit ANBU, I will lead young shinobi and make them strong. And I will protect them with my life."_

_Sarutobi returned the smile, but it was a sad, bemused expression beneath the shadow of a frown. He sensed the terrible loneliness that tormented the young man, but he did not fully understand its cause. _

"_Being a soldier won't replace being a man who loves and is loved by other people," he said. "Do you recall the rule that a ninja must not give in to emotions? It doesn't mean to make yourself a stone, or to hide behind a mask---it means that you can't let grief and anger shape who you are." He bent nearer, to whisper. "After all, even if he's left you, you are going to live . . ."_

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

**Years Later**

"Kakashi-_sensei_!"

"_Oi_! It's a disgrace for an adult to be this lazy!"

"You're late."

Kakashi emerged from the woods at half past noon beneath a clear autumn sky. The air was brisk and cold, and he drew in a deep breath, savoring it as he turned his attention toward an irritable Sakura, who was standing and glaring at him with her hands on her hips. The second came from Naruto, who had just leaped to his feet and begun shaking a fist at his teacher. The third came from Sasuke, who was leaning against one of the training posts a little ways apart from his fellow ninja. Sasuke wore his perpetually bored expression, which meant that he was glad to see his teacher no matter how late he was.

Kakashi, in return, beamed at them all from beneath the cloth covering his face.

"I'm sorry," he apologized cheerily. "I was just admiring the maple leaves, while my mind wandered down many a path of meditation."

"Your mind wanders---I'll give you _that_," Naruto grumbled, already bored with chewing his teacher out. "You promised you'd work with me on the Chidori technique today."

Sakura glanced over at him in surprise.

"What---you're _still_ trying to learn that one?" she asked. "Why won't you give it up already? Sasuke's the only one besides Kakashi-_sensei_ who can use it, and both of them can only use it because they have the Sharingan."

Sasuke shifted his weight to the other foot as he leaned against the training post. He didn't seem pleased. In fact, lately he seemed to grow inexplicably irritable whenever his personal techniques and Naruto were mentioned together.

"I could do it if I trained my hardest!" Naruto insisted, whirling around to face her with his hands balled into fists at his sides.

Sakura merely folded her arms, looking skeptical.

"I've watched you try to 'train' for _Chidori_," she remarked flatly. "You stand there all hunched over, clutching your wrist and screwing up your face like you're constipated."

"Ahem." Kakashi cleared his throat loudly, coming into the clearing to stand in their midst. "I know it's bad enough that I'm late, but I regret to inform you that I won't have time to teach you today."

A look of profound horror cross Naruto's face, as if Kakashi had just cancelled Christmas. He hastened over to stand directly in front of the Jounin, gazing up at him pleadingly.

"But, but, but I'm going to get _weak_ if you don't train me!" he protested.

"And fat," Sakura added helpfully. "With all that ramen you eat . . ." But she seemed disappointed as well.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"How am I supposed to get any stronger if you keep making excuses for leaving us to train on our own?" he asked, a bit too intensely.

"Hey, _I'll_ train with you," Naruto suggested, turning toward the brooding, dark-haired Genin. Kakashi gave him a sharp look that clearly meant No, but as usual Naruto's enthusiasm rendered him completely oblivious.

Sasuke, in the meantime, had stopped leaning against the training post and moved out onto the grass, looking interested. An unusually fierce look came into Naruto's eye, and he straightened, one hand lingering near his _kunai_.

"We never did get to fight," he remarked.

Sasuke nodded slowly. "Because the Chuunin Exam was interrupted."

The two boys stood there a moment, sizing each other up. Naruto was grinning eagerly; Sasuke wasn't smiling at all.

The sudden tension in the air made Sakura nervous.

"Wait---" she began, starting toward them, but fortunately Kakashi---no doubt sensing that blood was about to be spilt---interfered first.

"Ahem." The white-haired Jounin stepped forward, raising one fist to his mouth and clearing his throat loudly. "I can't make today's practice, but I _can_ make it up to you," he said, addressing all three of them. "Our team has just been assigned to a new mission; I'm afraid you'll have to postpone killing each other."

Naruto turned toward him, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not raking leaves, is it?" he asked suspiciously, glancing at the fiery-red maple leaves scattered across the practice field.

Sasuke scowled, obviously equally displeased with the notion.

Kakashi held up both hands for silence.

"Let me explain," he told them. "This isn't an ordinary mission. It's Class-A. Do you recall what that means?"

Naruto's mouth fell open.

"Class A?!" Sakura exclaimed in astonishment. "That's for Jounin! Kakashi-_sensei_, we shouldn't be doing something of that caliber . . ."

Sasuke cast her a sidelong glance, looking as if he wanted to strangle her for protesting. A slow grin spread over Naruto's face.

"Hey, hey, Kakashi_-sensei_---what is it we're doing?" he asked excitedly.

Kakashi folded his arms, arching his back to gaze up at the sky. He wasn't smiling.

"An unusual request has been made of us," he said coolly. "We've been asked to make the journey to the Water Country. There's a city there called Mizutou, built right into the cliffs along the eastern coast. Its ruler, Lord Garyu, has requested our service as bodyguards."

Naruto was practically hopping up and down with impatience.

"So? Where are we taking him?" he asked. "So our route will take us across the ocean? Wow! Class-_A! _A real chance for glory! Can we go to the beach on our way back?"

Kakashi looked down at him, wearing an oddly closed expression.

"We're not _taking_ him anywhere. We'll be guarding him there in Mizutou."

"Eh?" Naruto pulled a face. "Why _us_, then? Konoha ninjas, I mean. Doesn't Mizutou have its own ninja?"

Kakashi merely eyed him gravely, saying nothing. Sasuke sat down in the grass, smiling grimly.

"Heh. I see," he said, lowering his head so that his dark bangs fell across his forehead._ "_Sothat's why the mission has an A-ranking."

"Am I missing something?" Sakura asked, glancing from Sasuke to Kakashi and back again.

With a sigh, Kakashi unfolded his arms.

"Lord Garyu has reason to believe that ninja from the Hidden Village of Mist are after his life. He's spoken with the Mizukage already, but the Mizukage denies it. And there have been several attacks of late---Garyu can't afford to wait for evidence of the Mist ninja's involvement to present itself. So he seeks help from the ninja from another country." The Jounin paused, looking askance at Sasuke. "And yes, you're right---the mission has an A-ranking because what we're being hired to do here is to fight off ninja specifically trained for assassination."

"Fine," Sasuke responded, resting one hand on his knee and twiddling a blade of grass between the fingers of the other.

Sakura rounded on him, upset by his attitude.

"What do you mean, '_fine_'? This is very dangerous! We have to take this seriously!"

Sasuke dropped the grass.

"Just what I said: fine," he repeated calmly. Then he glanced up at Kakashi. "When do we leave?"

Kakashi frowned a little, but didn't comment on his student's attitude.

"Tomorrow," he told them. "Pack light, and pack plainclothes. _No_ ninja attire," he repeated firmly, directing this at Naruto, who was regarding him with a look of abject horror. "When we get to Mizutou, Lord Garyu will provide local clothes for us to wear, because we'll be staying in the city for quite some time and we need to blend in. I want you all to eat well tonight and go to sleep early---we've got a long journey ahead of us, and it's important that we make good time. The longer we take, the longer Garyu's life will be in danger."

Then he ceased speaking, and his three students stared at him.

"That's all," Kakashi told them, realizing that they expected him to say more. "I'll fill you in once we've left Konoha. Just go home."

Then he turned and walked off into the trees.

The three Genin watched him leave, wearing expressions with varying degrees of frustration and bemusement.

After a moment had passed in silence, Naruto could no longer contain himself.

"What the hell's _he_ doing? Going for a stroll? He _could_ have stayed to train with us . . ."

Sasuke---also watching the Jounin meander off into the woods---wore a rather sour expression as well. Sakura turned to face them. She sensed that this was a good time to lighten the mood, before her two friends decided to have a go at each other again.

"Why don't we all pack now, and then you can come over to my house for dinner?" she offered, a bit nervously.

Naruto's scowl vanished immediately, and he turned a sunny grin and a pair of very large, liquid blue eyes her way.

"Really, Sakura-_chan_? Really?"

Somewhat disturbed by the liquid blue eyes trained on her so adoringly, Sakura turned to Sasuke and held her breath. She managed to appear nonchalant about it, though the Inner Sakura was urging him, _"SAY 'YES', DAMMIT!"_ She had never invited either Sasuke or Naruto home before, but she figured that a pre-mission sendoff dinner was as good an opportunity as any.

Sasuke's reaction was far from satisfactory. He merely persisted in glaring off in the direction Kakashi had taken, restlessly tearing at the grass. In Naruto's case, however, she seemed to have won his undying affection.

"All right!" he exulted, balling his fists in front of him eagerly. "Sakura-_chan_'s cooking!"

"Er---it's my mother's---" Sakura began, somewhat taken aback by his exuberance, but then she decided against setting him straight.

'_Oh, well,'_ she thought. _'At least I've made someone happy . . .'_

"I'll come."

Sakura was so shocked to hear this that she nearly keeled over. Sasuke was looking straight at her. He wasn't smiling, but by this time she knew better than to expect that of him.

"Ah---okay," she managed, blushing furiously while the Inner Sakura exulted at the top of her lungs. "I guess I'll be going then. See you at sundown."

Having laid these plans for the evening, the three young ninja went their separate ways.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Naruto strolled down Konoha's thoroughfare with a bit of a spring in his step.

"Dinner with Sakura-_chan_, dinner with Sakura-_chan_," he sang to himself as he went.

He was in such high spirits that he grinned widely at everyone he passed---which earned him a plethora of bemused stares from the shopkeepers and errand-runners, and more than a few worried looks from people who knew the kind of mischief he could get into. The restaurants were just beginning to open for the evening, and the savory scent of ramen wafted past his nose. Inhaling deeply, Naruto turned his head eagerly this way and that, trying to locate the source of the smell. Then he realized what he was doing and stopped himself, pounding a fist against his stomach and shaking his head vehemently.

"Sakura_-chan_ is feeding me tonight," he told his stomach firmly. "I will be strong and hold out for Sakura-_chan_."

His stomach responded with a hearty gurgle. Then, because he wasn't paying attention, Naruto managed to walk right into the tall white-haired hermit heading in the opposite direction.

"Why hold out for _one_ girl?" the man asked cheerily as Naruto bounced off him. "She'll never know if you get a little something on the side, too."

Naruto realized immediately who it was and jumped back a good three feet.

"_Ero-sennin!_" he shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at the Sannin's chest.

Jiraiya's grin melted into a scowl, and he waved hastily at Naruto, trying to get him to shut up.

"Brat! Do you have to yell that out _here_?" People walking around them were beginning to stare, and not merely because they had stopped right in the middle of the street.

Naruto, of course, who was notorious for not shutting up until he was good and ready, merely squinted at the Sannin and went on with his tirade.

"Where were _you_ when all hell was breaking loose in Konoha?" he demanded. "Out playing with your frogs? Or peeping at girls, maybe . . ."

This was the final straw for Jiraiya---passing women were giving him rather hostile looks. Mothers were beginning to steer their children as far away from the quarreling pair as was possible amid the crowded street. Before Naruto could utter another word, the Sannin clamped one hand around the Genin's mouth and dragged him kicking and flailing into a nearby alleyway.

"_Oi, oi!"_ Naruto exclaimed when Jiraiya had finally released him. "_Ero-sennin_---what's going on?"

"Hush!" Jiraiya admonished, more sternly this time. "I don't want all of Konoha to know I'm here."

"Really?" Naruto immediately quieted down, regarding the Sannin with wide, curious eyes. "Then why are you here?"

"Ah . . ." Jiraiya's frown eased, and he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I came to see _you_, actually. I heard an interesting rumor from a frog about what happened while I was away . . . something about the Sand ninja Gaara and a giant demon?"

"Ehh . . . oh, that." Naruto looked mildly bemused. "I always thought _tanuki_ were supposed to be cute, but he had an _evil_ one inside him."

"A _tanuki_ demon? Inside him?" Jiraiya smiled, but he wore an expression of uncharacteristic puzzlement. "Ah. . . that's interesting . . ."

"What? What?" Naruto peered up at him, curious because he had never seen the Sannin wear such a face.

Jiraiya stroked his chin, looking thoughtful.

"What can you tell me about this 'Gaara'?" he asked. "What sort of techniques does he use?"

Naruto cast a furtive glance down the alleyway, but the nearest people were walking past it along the main road, well beyond earshot. When he turned back toward the white-haired Sannin his face was very solemn.

"Gaara is like me," he said simply. Slowly, Jiraiya nodded understanding. "But he uses sand, like a shield. No one gets near him because of it."

'_Except you,' _the Sannin thought, '_because you're like him.'_

But he didn't say this out loud. Instead he patted Naruto on the head in an absent sort of way, which made the yellow-haired Genin scowl. "Thanks," he said. "I think it's becoming clearer to me . . ."

Naruto cocked his head to one side, squinting up at the hermit in confusion.

"Ehh? What is?"

Jiraiya flashed him a conspiratorial grin and a thumbs-up.

"Secret business," he declared cryptically. Then, in a rush of wind, the Sannin was gone, no doubt navigating the rooftops to pursue some mysterious errand.

Naruto blinked in bemusement.

'_Ehh? He asked about Gaara, so it can't have to do with peeping . . .' _Naruto grimaced. _'At least, I hope it doesn't have to do with peeping . . . With Ero-sennin you never know.'_

Still shaking his head, Naruto wandered back onto the main thoroughfare, earning a few suspicious looks as he emerged from the dark alley. Then he remembered . . .

"Shit!" he exclaimed, causing several women with shopping bags to jump. "Sakura-_chan_!" Then he took off at a dead run.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Kakashi sat on the balcony outside his room, which overlooked one of Konoha's quieter streets. The moon shone down over the village, casting blue shadows across the streets wherever there weren't lanterns strung to hold them at bay. Shadows, of course, were no real threat to a _shinobi_---it was the ones who moved in them that inspired caution.

'_I don't like this,'_ Kakashi thought, gazing off into the distance and frowning. A cold wind ruffled his hair, blowing westward.

He had promised to explain the nature of the pending mission in greater detail once his team was clear of Konoha, but there were still some secrets that he had no intention of divulging. He had been quite surprised when the village elders---some of whom were close relatives of the late Third Hokage---summoned him personally to meet with the messenger from the Water Country. It was not standard procedure, and it was also extremely unusual for the elders to concern themselves with a mission when Konoha was still ungoverned and in shambles.

They met in the ANBU Council Room in the Hokage's headquarters, which served to unnerve Kakashi even further. Going to this extent to preserve a mission's secrecy had seemed unduly excessive . . . until the elders explained the nature of _this _particular mission.

Kakashi's first impression of the Water-Lord's messenger was that this was a ninja whose enemies would underestimate him and then immediately come to regret it. He was introduced to the Jounin as Arashi Shikyo---a short, slender man from the Hidden Village of Rain with a quiet, unassuming manner and an easy way of moving that belied lightning-fast reflexes. Once the situation in Mizutou was explained, Kakashi understood why such a man had been dispatched. Shikyo was apparently one of Lord Garyu's personal bodyguards, and was the candidate most likely to survive a journey past the Hidden Village of Mist---where the assassins after Garyu purportedly had their base.

"But why choose _me?"_ Kakashi had asked, frowning beneath his mask. "There are others . . . perhaps even ANBU would be more ideal in this situation." There were no ANBU members attending the meeting.

"The Water-Lord was one of the attending guests at your Chuunin Exam," Shikyo told Kakashi. "He witnessed your students' trials, and has complete faith in those you place _your _faith in." The Rain ninja nodded toward the chamber's one open window, which revealed a panoramic view of the Leaf Village. "My instructions are clear. You are invited to bring anyone from Konoha that you wish. However, Garyu-_sama _requested that you not bring ANBU into this. The Mist Ninja already have fingers pointing to them in accusation; they would no doubt interpret it as a threat to their Village if they learned that Konoha was involved. That is why Garyu-_sama _requested a small company of Leaf Ninja---so that Konoha's presence there would not be intrusive." Shikyo's sharp gaze turned back toward Kakashi. "And my lord will only provide funding for you and your team. All others will come only at your behest."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

'_He's trapped me---forcing me to undertake this mission with only myself and my team, because Konoha can't afford to send shinobi on missions for which they won't be paid. But why? Why my team?'_

Aloud, he asked, "Which still leaves me to wonder: why was _I _chosen in particular?"

Shikyo's smooth expression turned grim.

"There is a special technique used by the assassins each time they make an attempt on Garyu-_sama_'s life," he murmured. "According to the dossiers my lord acquired on his last visit to Konoha---during the Chuunin Exam---there are only two living in your village able to use this technique. Your name was listed, as was your profile, and the profile of the other man."

Kakashi was so shocked that he took an involuntary step backward.

"Then . . . you mean . . . ?" The Jounin glanced at the attending Leaf elders for confirmation. To his horror, they nodded gravely.

That night, seated cross-legged on his balcony, Kakashi whispered the accursed name.

"_Shinkuhana no Jutsu---_the Crimson Blossom Technique."

It was an assassin's technique---one Kakashi had spent nearly thirteen years praying he would never need to use.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Despite the haste with which he traversed the streets, Naruto was still the last to arrive at Sakura's house.

"Damn that _Ero-sennin, _making me late," he muttered as he wrapped on her door.

From inside he heard a brief exchange between several people, followed by someone's footsteps as they approached the door. Suddenly feeling a bit nervous, he straightened his jacket-collar and readied the bunch of flowers he'd bought on the way. They were pink, like Sakura's hair.

The door swung open, and Naruto swallowed hard, holding the bouquet out in front of him.

What he got was an eyeful of Sasuke, who had been elected to let him in because the rest of Sakura's family was busy in the kitchen. The two Genin stared silently at each other for a minute beneath the glow of the porch light. Then Sasuke turned a cool eye down toward the proffered flowers.

"Those had better not be for _me_," he said, backing up and opening the door further to allow Naruto passage.

Naruto, whose flesh was crawling at the very thought, grumbled, "Hell no," and brushed past his fellow Genin. Once inside, however, he stopped in his tracks and took to gazing intently at his surroundings. Sakura's house was much neater than his own apartment, and much larger. The walls in the dining room were painted yellow and everywhere he looked there was evidence of a woman's touch, from the décor to the arrangement of the framed photos on the shelves. Though he couldn't quite pinpoint why, Naruto decided he liked it.

"Stop grinning like that; you're making me nervous."

Sakura had just entered the room, wearing an apron over her red jumper and carrying a ladle in one hand.

"Sakura-_chan_!" Naruto greeted her excitedly, turning and offering her the bouquet.

Caught off-guard, she accepted it and bent to breathe in the scent. Naruto beamed; Sasuke merely folded his arms and looked bored.

"Erm---thanks," Sakura finally responded, returning his smile for once. Then she disappeared back into the kitchen with them, presumably to find a vase.

While Sasuke seated himself at the table, Naruto took to examining the photos on the shelves. Having never had one of his own, he was curious to see what sort of family Sakura had.

"Hey, hey, Sasuke, you should see this!" he called, picking one of them up and waving it in the air. "Sakura-_chan_ as a baby, butt naked!"

"Naruto! Don't be looking at that!" Sakura shouted, hurtling back into the room and looking so outraged she seemed possessed.

Sasuke watched with folded arms as Naruto received a fist in the jaw for his troubles, wearing a slight smile. At that moment, Sakura's mother emerged from the kitchen bearing a tray of dumplings.

"May I help you with anything else, Mother?" Sakura asked sweetly. Both Sasuke and Naruto stared at her in amazement.

'_Her---her personality just did a full one-eighty,' _Naruto thought, gaping in wonderment and rubbing his chin. '_So scary . . .'_

"Ehh, it's all right, Sakura," her mother replied, eyeing the two boys speculatively. "You can keep your friends company while your father finishes cooking the _yakisoba._"

She was a rather pretty woman, with dark hair and eyes and a very fine oval-shaped face. She looked more like she could have given birth to Sasuke than Sakura. Sasuke favored her with one of his rare genuine smiles and bowed respectfully. Sakura's mother returned the smile briefly, but her eyes were on Naruto. Her expression was wary, as if he were a stray dog her daughter had let into the house that might possibly be rabid. Still rubbing his jaw, Naruto grinned at her, which unfortunately made him look every bit as impish as his reputation suggested.

Without another word, she turned briskly and strode back into the kitchen. Sakura turned toward Naruto with her fists on her hips.

"You didn't break anything yet, did you?"

"No," Naruto replied somewhat indignantly. "See?" He held up the picture to show that it was still intact and then replaced it on the shelf with exaggerated carefulness.

Sakura scowled at it.

"It'd be okay if you broke _that_," she muttered.

"Hey, Sakura, let's go to your room," Naruto suggested, his mind already jumping to the next impulse to flash through his brain.

Sakura laid a finger to her lower lip, looking somewhat uneasy. Then, without warning, she took off down the hall, shouting, "Wait there a sec!" over her shoulder. Presently several banging and scraping noises echoed down the hall. Naruto and Sasuke exchanged bemused glances, and then looked up when Sakura came hurtling back into the room.

"All clean now," she panted, and the two of them followed her to her bedroom.

Naruto, who had never seen the inside of a girl's bedroom, immediately began making a case study of it. Sakura immediately found her hands full with keeping him out of the drawers containing her underwear; he was rampantly curious about every bit of jewelry lying around and every poster on the wall, and most of all the framed pictures of her family that she had on display. "Sakura's clan" he called them, which seemed to embarrass her because she didn't understand his enthusiasm.

'_Of course not,' _Naruto thought to himself. _'She has a family.'_

This made him feel a bit odd, so he turned his attention to the enormous mirror mounted into a stand near Sakura's dresser.

"I bet Sakura-_chan_ primps in front of it every morning," he remarked, casting an impish eye toward Sasuke. Then he formed a quick seal, shouted "_Henge!_" and abruptly another Sakura stood in front of the mirror.

"Naruto!" Sakura protested, "what are you---?"

"I can't wear this; it makes me look _fat_," Naruto simpered in Sakura's voice. "Oh, Sasuke, will you ever notice my lovely white legs?" Sakura's double struck a pose in front of the mirror, lifting one corner of his/her red jumper to expose more of his/her thigh.

Sakura, who _did _primp every morning, rewarded his prank with a fist in the gut.

"_Oi_!" Naruto wheezed, staggering backward and clutching at his belly. "You shouldn't hit a girl." Then the transformation vanished in a puff of smoke, and he landed on his rear end on the floor. While Sakura glanced nervously at Sasuke, who was sitting on her bed, Naruto doubled over with laughter. However, he still hadn't quite recovered from having the wind knocked out of him, and so it sounded more like he was choking.

Sasuke had been watching the proceedings with folded arms and his perpetually bored expression.

"What an idiot, eh?" Sakura remarked, laughing a bit nervously. It was a bit hard to think clearly when the Inner Sakura was shouting, _"YES! Sasuke is in MY bedroom, on MY bed!"_ and other such impure thoughts. Then she turned back toward Naruto, who was rolling around on the floor. _'It would be perfect if HE weren't here . . .'_

"Kakashi seems awfully close-mouthed about this mission," Sasuke said unexpectedly. His friends abandoned their previous engagements to turn and stare at him.

The dark-haired Genin was gazing absently at his own reflection in the mirror.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, sitting up and drawing his knees into a cross-legged position. "He seemed pretty straight-forward about it to me. . ."

Sasuke leaned forward, steepling his fingers in front of his chin.

"Think about it. He admitted that he isn't going to tell us everything until we've left Konoha." His sharp black eyes switched from the mirror to Naruto's face. "That's like saying there's some sort of danger in Konoha itself---danger that might put the mission at risk."

Sakura shook her head.

"But why would someone in the Leaf Village care about some feudal lord in the Water Country?"

"Precisely," Sasuke agreed, nodding to himself.

'_What a freak,' _Naruto thought, staring at the other boy with one eye squinted and the opposite eyebrow raised. _'Worrying about all that stuff now . . . Kakashi-sensei's just going to tell us anyway tomorrow morning.'_

Sakura, on the other hand, looked starry-eyed and impressed.

"You're right," she breathed. "There has to be more to this. After all, it _is_ an A-Class mission." Her last modicum of misgivings about the danger level seemed to have evaporated in the presence of her object of desire. "And if the Mist Ninja _are _involved, then---"

"Sakura!" her mother called from the kitchen. "Dinner is ready!"

"Coming!" Sakura shouted. Her two friends followed her back down the hall to the dining room, where everything had already been served and was now steaming gently on their plates.

"All right!" Naruto exulted as he seated himself across from Sakura. "_Itadakimasu!"_

"_Itadakimasu,"_ Sasuke said, taking hold of a dumpling between his chopsticks in a far more dignified manner.

"_Itadakimasu," _Sakura echoed. She had seated herself next to Sasuke so that their hands could "accidentally" brush every time he passed a dish around. She fully intended to eat her fill tonight.

Sakura's mother was still giving Naruto the evil eye. Naruto, who was quite accustomed to people giving him the evil eye, grinned at her and said, "Delicious!" before popping an entire rice-ball into his mouth. The woman's scowl deepened, and she turned away to avoid looking at him at all.

"So your mission this time is to act as bodyguards for a foreign lord, is it?" Sakura's father asked them, helping himself to the _yakisoba. _"And you're meeting Kakashi-_san _early tomorrow morning?"

"That's right," Sakura replied, forcing a smile, as if fending off skilled assassins were something she looked forward to.

"It's so odd, though, that Kakashi-_san _feels your mission could last as long as a month," her mother remarked.

The three Genin exchanged bemused glances. In the end, none of them replied.

"Well, Sasuke-_kun_, I saw your fight at the Chuunin Exam, and it was quite impressive," Sakura's father said, leaning forward to gaze down the table at the dark-haired boy. He was a somewhat homely man, but he had a wide, honest face and an engaging smile. Naruto could see where Sakura inherited her forehead from, but her father's hair was brown. Somehow he felt that a black-haired mother and a brown-haired father should _not _have been able to produce a daughter with light pink hair.

'_Or maybe genetics don't apply to anime heroines,' _he decided, nodding to himself while chewing _soba._

At the mention of the Chuunin Exam Sasuke's black eyes narrowed, and his mood visibly soured.

"Ah . . . Sasuke-_kun_, can you please pass the _gyoza_?" Sakura asked, seeking to distract him before he could lapse into silent brooding. For some reason, any mention of his fight with Gaara seemed to instantly darken his mood.

Oblivious to the delicacy of the situation, Naruto warmed to the topic.

"Yeah. It's too bad Orochimaru attacked, or Sasuke would have _really _kicked that creepy guy's ass."

Sakura shot him a glare while piling _gyoza _on her plate, completely missing the fact that Sasuke's hand brushed hers in the process. Sakura's father nodded seriously.

"I was amazed at how strong you were against him," he remarked. "Gaara was dangerous---dangerous even to his own comrades. One of the men placing bets told me that even the Sand Ninja were afraid of him, and that he killed people in his own village."

Sakura's mother's lips pursed, giving her face a rather pinched, fierce look to it.

"The rumor was going around the stadium that he had a demon beast inside him," she said distastefully. "Sealed into him, and then they gave him a shield of sand to protect him! Who would want to _protect _such a monster?" As she spoke, her gaze slid sideways toward Naruto, who paused mid-chew in surprise.

"They only kept him to use against Konoha," Sakura's father suggested. "But he was definitely what I'd call a dangerous tool."

Naruto swallowed hurriedly.

"Gaara was strong, but he used his strength in a bad way," he told them. "He was alone, and it made him angry because he didn't trust or rely on anyone." He shrugged. "He's creepy, but I don't think he's the sort of guy who can't change."

Sakura blinked, unsure what to make of this strange little speech. Her parents, on the other hand, seemed to be radiating disapproval in Naruto's direction.

"You sympathize with him?" Sakura's father asked. Suddenly his smile was no longer engaging. "But, then, _you_ of all---"

His wife cut him off sharply.

"Gaara may be able to change on the outside," she agreed with Naruto, but her tone was frosty. "And maybe the Sand may come to see him as a hero . . ."

With a jolt, realization hit Naruto like one of Sakura's left-hooks: Sakura's parents knew that the Nine-Tails demon had been sealed inside himOf course they knew. How could he have forgotten? _All _the adults knew . . . And just now, if Sakura's mother had not interrupted what her husband was about to say, he might have blurted out the secret, right in front of Sasuke and Sakura.

"However," Sakura's mother went on, "inside he will always be a monster." Delicately, she captured a dumpling between her chopsticks. "Regardless of whom he fools."

Naruto tried to swallow, but the piece of tofu stuck in his throat. Every instinct in his brain was telling him to leave Right Now, before the conversation got any uglier. It had been a while since he'd come across people like this. He had no way of knowing if Sakura's parents had lost an uncle; a sister; a friend---but it was all the same. They blamed him because he was like a living symbol of their pain---a living legacy of their grief for those killed by the Nine-Tails. It never stopped hurting him because he was the sort of boy who understood the pain of others, and this nearly defied his understanding. He didn't think he could bear it if his friends found out.

Sakura stared back and forth between her parents in confusion. The Inner Sakura was demanding, "_WHAT THE HELL_?" Sasuke merely folded his hands in front of his mouth and studied Sakura's mother intently. He had been listening to the entire conversation with keen interest, because he had no idea what was going on either and his sharp mind liked to wrap itself around things that puzzled him.

Naruto laid his chopsticks across his plate and wiped his fingers on the front of his pant legs beneath the table.

"Thank you for the meal," he told Sakura's mother, who was chewing her dumpling idly as if she hadn't just delivered such a stinging veiled insult. "It was delicious." Then he shoved his chair back from the table and stood up to leave.

Sakura finally recovered from her confusion enough to be surprised at the abruptness of his leave-taking.

"Eh---Naruto? Why are---?" she began, but her father interrupted her.

"I'm sure he wants to turn in early so he's well rested for the start of the mission tomorrow."

"Right." Naruto nodded, and with a forced grin he turned quickly and headed for the door. "See you in the morning, then."

There was an unnatural spring in his step so obviously false that Sakura and Sasuke merely stared at him in silence. Then the door swung shut behind him, and he stood alone on the porch. It was later now, and the streets had grown quiet. Most of the people who had been out before had either arrived home, could be found sitting in bars and restaurants with friends and family. Naruto took a deep breath, and then stepped beyond the light of Sakura's porch and onto the road.

He took his time going home; the truth was he wasn't the least bit tired, or inclined to turn in early for the sake of the mission. He was still hungry as well, and as he walked alone he had his stomach's growling to keep him company. Because of the noise and his hurt feelings, it took Naruto quite some time before he noticed that he was being trailed.

At first he thought it was just his imagination---that he was seeing the shadow of someone passing by him on the main road, but then he realized that the shadow had no accompanying person to cast it.

"_Ero-sennin_?" he muttered, a bit uncertainly, wondering if the old frog-hermit were trying to get him alone to talk. However, from the fleeting glimpses of it that he caught he could see that it was someone much shorter and thinner around the shoulders. _'It's not Konohamaru,' _he thought with a grimace. _'That kid couldn't hide his ass with both hands and a camouflage technique.'_

Naruto scratched his head, squinting at the surrounding buildings and trying to catch another glimpse. None came. Whoever it was, they apparently didn't want to talk to him; they wanted to followhim. Naruto jammed his hands in his pockets, adopting a casual swagger and whistling as he moved down the street.

'_I hope it's not Sakura's mother, coming to kill me,' _he thought, a bit worriedly.

After about fifteen minutes of pretending to be unaware of his stalker, Naruto turned and ducked abruptly into a narrow side-street. He was about to take off at a dead run using _shinobi _speed, but curiosity got the better of him and he hesitated, peering back the way he'd come to see if the shadow moved again.

Nothing moved; the street was empty.

Slowly, Naruto backed up, preparing to turn and run like hell for home. Instead he found himself backing into someone standing behind him. An arm swathed in white cloth clamped around his neck, immediately trapping him in a choke-hold. In the other hand his captor held a _kunai,_ with the blade pressed against Naruto's throat.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Within the privacy of the ANBU Council Room, where just seven hours earlier Hatake Kakashi had met with Konoha's Elders, the Elders now presided over the report of an ANBU squad that had recently returned to the village. The squad was large---composed of ten people---but this wasn't unusual given the nature of their previous mission. They had been sent out onto the public roads in groups of two and three, posing as ordinary wayfarers in order to trail the Sand Ninja as they made their way home. Or, more specifically, they had been sent to follow Gaara, the leader of the Sand's only representing team. A full report on what had transpired in the Forest of Death during the chaos after the Chuunin Exam had been made, composed of the accounts of several eye-witnesses. What concerned ANBU the most was the fact that Gaara, like Uzumaki Naruto, had a demon sealed inside him, and thus they'd elected to begin immediate investigation of the boy. The investigation was mainly to determine what precautions the Sand were taking to keep him under control.

The investigation took a sudden dark turn when the corpses began turning up along the road. Only one ANBU team trailed Gaara all the way to the Sand Village; the rest ended up investigating the strange deaths. It was obvious that Gaara was the killer, but what puzzled the Leaf ninja was the fact that the "victims" were apparently anything but innocent. Some of the bodies were mangled beyond recognition, for Gaara had apparently employed his "Desert Coffin" technique against them, but ANBU found discarded weapons lying near them, indicating that they had died because they dared to _attack _the Sand boy. Those attackers that he had _not _used Desert Coffin on were usually to be found lying with their mouths grotesquely open and their lungs filled with sand. Upon investigating thesegruesome sites ANBU found that all of the attackers had at least two things in common: they were all _shinobi,_ and all of them were exiles from their various villages. This was evident from their forehead protectors, upon which there was always a slantwise slash across the village emblems.

The matter had been brought before the Leaf Elders because ANBU was at a loss. Their first intuitive guess was that some of the feudal lords attending the Chuunin Exam had bet against Sasuke and lost a great deal of money, and that these lords were sending assassins to get their revenge against Gaara himself. However, this didn't seem entirely plausible because of the sheer numberof assassins that had been sent. _Shinobi _assassins didn't come cheap, and exiled _shinobi _living as mercenaries were oftentimes even more expensive. It seemed unlikely that feudal lords who had just lost enough money to make them seek vengeance against Gaara would be able to afford hiring this many killers.

The Leaf Elders ruled that it was far more likely that the assassins had all come from one group, which implied that there was some form of hidden organization built up somewhere. After the havoc that Orochimaru had wreaked with his forces from the Hidden Village of Sound, such an investigation was well worth pursuing. Konoha had learned its lesson, and wasn't going to be taking any more chances.

In the shadows on the rooftop just above the Council Room, Jiraiya was seated cross-legged, eavesdropping. "Another secret organization, like Orochimaru's?" he murmured softly to himself, stroking his chin with his thick fingers. "Or maybe it _is _Orochimaru's."

The Sannin had missed the aftermath of the Chuunin Exam fiasco, having spent that weekend carousing in a civilian village some thirty miles away after staying just long enough to attend the Third Hokage's funeral. However, en route back to Konoha, he happened to cross paths with one of the ANBU squads trailing Gaara, and had incidentally developed in interest in the strange nature of the murders. What little Naruto told him about Gaara had been enough to arouse his concern, and thus when he'd caught wind of the place and time for the ANBU meeting---namely, by getting one of the ANBU members roaring drunk and plying her for information---he'd decided to listen in.

"The real question," one of the Leaf Elders told the assembled squad, "is not _whom_ but _why._ From the report, it almost seems as if someone is testing this Sand boy---pitting him against assassins of varied skills, perhaps to see if he is truly invulnerable."

Jiraiya frowned, shadows pooling in the deepening creases of his face. Gaara's innate uniqueness stemmed from the demon contained within him. Whoever was sending the assassins could just as easily send them after Naruto . . .

Abruptly, the Sannin rose to his feet and leaped from the roof. He moved swiftly and silently through the village, never once slowing until he had arrived at Naruto's apartment. When his knocking went unanswered, Jiraiya simply let himself in. The apartment was dark and empty, and from the looks of things Naruto had left recently and with great haste. His regular orange jumpsuit lay in a crumpled heap across the bed, but Naruto seemed to have taken everything else with him that wasn't nailed down. Perhaps it had merely been carelessness, but the boy had also left his door unlocked.

Jiraiya was beginning to be alarmed. Standing in his student's abandoned apartment, he found himself giving serious consideration to revealing his presence here to the Leaf Elders. He sighed.

Sadly, some things were more important than having the freedom to drink and womanize in complete anonymity. There weren't many, but this was one of them.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

**Two Hours Earlier**

"If I were an assassin," Naruto's captor murmured in his ear, "I could have killed you by now."

Then the arm across Naruto's neck loosened, and Naruto sprang away from his attacker.

"What the hell?" Naruto bellowed indignantly, standing splay-legged and brandishing his fists. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Calmly, Sasuke reinserted the _kunai _into his pouch and folded his arms in front of him, regarding Naruto coolly.

"On my way home, I met Kakashi," he informed his fellow Genin. "He sent me to find _you._ Really, if you're going to let yourself be caughtthiseasily you shouldn't bother with A-Class missions."

Naruto squinted at him suspiciously.

"If you had something to tell me, why didn't you just _tell _me, instead of following me all this way? Creepy guy . . ."

Sasuke's faint look of amusement darkened into a frown.

"I wasn't" he said, casting a brief, bemused glance at the street behind Naruto. "You must be imagining things. But anyway, Kakashi sent me to fetch you and your supplies."

Naruto blinked.

"Eh? _Now_?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"It seems he's changed his mind about the mission. We're leaving tonight."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Twenty minutes later, Kakashi's Team Seven had regrouped outside the village gates. After Kakashi had taken a swift inventory of what his young charges were bringing with them---doubtlessly suspecting that Naruto's favorite orange jumpsuit might be stowing away in his pack---they took off through the forest beyond at a dead run. Kakashi's expression---what they could see of it, at any rate---seemed unusually grim. The three Genin exchanged puzzled glances as they ran.

Finally, Sakura broke the silence.

"Uh, Kakashi-_sensei_, is something wrong?" she asked, a bit nervously because Kakashi looked a bit pale.

"I will answer when we've reached the place where the road forks and veers to the east," the Jounin replied quietly. "But not before. The mission's danger may have begun before we even left the village, and I won't risk the possibility of anyone overtaking us."

"But I don't understand, Kakashi-_sensei,_" Naruto insisted. "Why would the road going east be any safer?"

Kakashi's one visible eye narrowed.

"We'll be meeting Garyu's personal guard there. He knows the enemy better than we do." The Jounin paused, and went silent for a moment as they flew from tree to tree. "I want you all to be prepared," he went on, ducking his head to avoid a low-hanging branch. "That is where our Mizutou ally comes in. If you go into this without knowing exactly what to expect, I can guarantee you that this mission will cost at least one of our lives."

**END OF CHAPTER 1**


	2. Shikyo's Warning: The Touch of Death

_Author's Note: "Senpuu" means "whirlwind." "Kenjutsu" means "sword technique." "Kai" was a technique used in Episode 103. Most of the techniques I use in here are true to the series. There will only be a few I make up for convenience' sake. For example, "Mizutate" means "water-shield." Regardless, if I get something wrong no flames! There are about a hundred ninjutsu (ninja techniques) in the series---you can't seriously expect me to memorize them all . . ._

_Oh, and a "sigil" is a symbol usually referring to a rune inscribed in the shape of a whorl. It's not a Japanese word, but it's not one people see often so I thought I'd include a definition of that as well. A "haori" is a Japanese shirt that opens in front like a kimono but has a square flap tied across the opening. For reference, check out the red haori Inuyasha wears. _

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**oo Chapter 2: Shikyo's Warning: The Touch of Death oo**

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

After Kakashi's rather grim pronouncement, the four of them moved in silence through the forest. Predictions of imminent doom had a way of stifling conversation. The only sounds were the faint scratch of their shoes where they made contact with the tree limbs.

There were no public roads leading out of Konoha; they would have to travel a good twenty miles before they came to a town with an inn. Ninja villages weren't called "Hidden" without good reason.

Naruto, naturally, was the first to break the silence. He alone was in quite a cheerful mood, despite the nastiness of the previous night's dinner. Sasuke seemed to be in good spirits as well, but then Sasuke's one great ambition in life was to kill someone, so Naruto didn't really feel this counted.

"What town will we be spending the night in?" he asked Kakashi. "I mean, we _are_ going to get some sleep at some point, right?"

Kakashi smiled wanly beneath his mask.

"There are a number of inns along the road toward the Water Country," he replied. "In case you're wondering, I happen to know the ones with the best food."

"Ramen?" Naruto inquired eagerly.

As if in response, his stomach gurgled loudly.

"Geez," Sasuke muttered without looking at any of them. "Your stomach alone is going to draw every assassin in the forest."

"Heh heh." Naruto grinned sheepishly, patting his gut with one hand.

Sakura, who was running a little ways behind the two boys, frowned at Naruto.

"You wouldn't be so hungry if you hadn't left halfway through dinner," she remarked. "Really, it was rude."

Naruto fell silent, and his impish face settled into an uncharacteristically serious look.

Kakashi stole a brief glance at him over one shoulder. The Jounin had been morose and withdrawn throughout the night; something troubling him beyond mere nerves. Sasuke had noticed it immediately, and was watching Kakashi like a hawk to try and figure out what he was hiding from his team.

Sakura, fortunately, was paying attention to the trees ahead of them.

"I see the road!" she announced, pointing toward an opening in the trees, beyond which there gleamed the promise of moonlight. "It looks like it's veering east; we might be near the fork."

Kakashi's head snapped up, and his eye narrowed as he peered in the direction she was indicating. Then, abruptly, he slowed and fell a little ways behind his three students. Sasuke slowed as well, his hand already flying to the _kunai _pouch strapped to his thigh. Kakashi shook his head, motioning the boy forward.

"What is it, Kakashi-_sensei_?" Sakura asked, looking back at them over her shoulder. "Do you see someone?"

"I see no one," Sasuke said, sharply surveying the surrounding forest and grasping a _kunai _in one hand. "Not even a shadow."

"I don't _see_ anyone, either," Kakashi agreed in a low voice. "But the eastern branch of the Aoite Road is thirty miles from Konoha. We should not be reaching it for another hour."

Sasuke's brow lifted.

"Then you mean . . . ?"

"We seem to have run into a _genjutsu,_" Kakashi finished for him. "An illusion technique. It seems someone wants us to think we've already reached the road, so that we'll jump to the ground and travel more slowly.

"So how do we get out of it?" Naruto demanded, falling back to join Sasuke. "I'm not very good at _genjutsu._"

Kakashi gave them both a shove, propelling them forward.

"Stay _ahead _of me," he ordered, in a tone unusually sharp for such a lackadaisical man. "They want us to slow down, so it's likely that whoever it is will attack from behindus."

As the Jounin ran, his hands formed a quick seal that ended with his two index and middle fingers steepled in front of his face.

"_Kai!"_ he cried in a clarion voice, and abruptly an odd sort of pulse radiated from his head in all directions.

The forest around them wavered and shifted. Some trees melted into shadow, while others spiraled into focus in different places. Looking at it made Naruto feel rather ill. To distract himself from his treacherous, roiling stomach, Naruto squinted into the darkness ahead, searching for some sign to confirm that this new view of the world was real.

"_Sharingan." _Both Naruto and Sakura glanced over at Sasuke, who was watching Kakashi with eyes gone red. After a few seconds of staring while the wheels turned in his pupils, the dark-haired Genin returned his attention to the trees ahead. He looked rather smug; he had just acquired a new technique.

"You'll have to help me with that one," Naruto entreated hopefully.

Sasuke didn't reply.

"In _front_ of me," Kakashi reminded Sasuke, pushing his student in front of him yet again. "I can see that the illusion is completely gone now. I want you three to go as fast as you can until you reach the road. No looking back, whatever happens. Keep to the trees. Do you understand? When you reach it, wait for me there. Now _go!"_

Naruto and Sakura glanced back at the Jounin in alarm, but Sasuke surged on ahead of them, grabbing each of them by the arm and pulling them along with him.

"He said '_Go_', so we _go_!" the Genin told them through clenched teeth.

Now that they had abandoned all stealth, the three young ninja tore through the forest at breakneck speed. Branches snapped against them, scratching their arms and legs and faces and cracking like a thousand tiny fireworks. The forest was darker now without the illusionary moonlight from the _genjutsu_, and they were scarcely aware of where they were going. Sasuke refused to let go of his teammates' arms, well aware of the fact that if any of them became separated they could end up lost or worse.

"Ow!" Sakura cried, and they were all temporarily jolted backward.

Because Sasuke was pulling her along, she had just run into a low-hanging branch, which had struck her in the face.

"Sakura, are you all right?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"Eh . . . yeah." Her voice sounded muffled, as if she were rubbing her face with her free hand. "We have to keep going!"

The two boys nodded assent, and then they were off again, eyes straining for some sight of the road ahead. Sasuke's Sharingan abilities apparently didn't extend to being able to see in the dark, but he led his teammates without hesitation to the northwest, as if he knew exactly where they were.

"Uh, Sasuke, I can't see a thing," Sakura admitted. "How do you know where we're going?"

Sasuke was silent for a while, but just as she was about to give up on an answer, he replied in a low voice, "I don't. I'm just following the same direction Kakashi-_sensei _was leading us, which seemed to be a straight shot to the road."

"Gah!" Naruto exclaimed, tearing at his hair with his free right hand. "Kakashi-_sensei _gets lost _every_ _morning_ on the way to the training grounds!"

Both his teammates turned toward the sound of his voice, wearing identical withering looks that none of them could see in the darkness.

"You mean you actually believehim when he says that?" Sakura asked him.

But Naruto's attention had just been diverted by something more important.

"A breeze!" he exclaimed, wrenching his left arm free of Sasuke's grasp to point directly ahead of them. "It's coming from that way!"

"I don't feel anything," Sakura said doubtfully.

But Naruto was sure of it now. The forest smelled like rich soil and tree bark and damp, rotting leaves. The scent from up ahead was cleaner somehow, like air that hadn'tbeen confined to a dark, stuffy forest for the past hour and a half.

"It's definitely there!" Naruto insisted. "My nose doesn't lie."

This was an odd thing to hear, even from him But Sasuke seemed to take it seriously.

"_Shh_," he told his teammates.

The three of them came to a halt atop a particularly wide branch. Sasuke flung out an arm to either side, preventing them from moving further. Naruto and Sakura listened with him, scarcely daring to breathe. They waited a long while, but no sound came.

"There's---there's nothing," Sakura said after a while. "They must have gone after Kakashi-_sensei._" She tried to take a step forward, but Sasuke's arm held her back.

"No, it's there," he insisted in a low voice. "I felt a breeze, just now, on my legs. That means we're definitely close to the road---we just can't _see _it."

Sakura took a step backward with a sharp intake of breath.

"Then this is . . . another _genjutsu._"

She couldn't see him nod, but Sasuke lowered his arm.

"That and the moon shouldn't have set this early," he added. "Someone's cast an illusion of darkness to keep us from reaching the road." Then he formed a quick seal and shouted "_Kai!"_

Once again, the world around them melted, but this time the darkness melted away to reveal a parting of the trees up ahead. Beyond that the moon shone down over a clearing of some sort---a road, in all likelihood. They weren't far away from it at all; roughly a quarter of a mile.

Naruto let out a sharp exhalation as something struck him in the neck.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked nervously. "What---?"

"Go!" Sasuke ordered.

At his sharp command the three of them sprang into motion, sprinting across the branches toward the clearing. Slender boughs whipped past their faces, but this time Sasuke wasn't holding them together and they had the freedom to dodge the worst of these. The darkness was no longer so complete; at various places ahead of them thin shafts of moonlight filtered down through the canopy.

"Almost there," Sakura gasped, her short hair fluttering behind her.

Sasuke happened to pass through one of the shafts of light, and suddenly the air was full of needles. A thousand gleaming points shot upward toward him from somewhere on the ground. He didn't have time to react, and they struck him multiple times in the legs and lower back.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried as he stumbled.

She increased her speed and managed to catch him around the waist before he could fall. In the process, several needles sank into her calves, but they missed their targeted pressure points and she was able to keep moving. She slung one of Sasuke's arms around her neck and half-carried, half-dragged him with her as she went. Naruto, in the meantime, immediately dropped down into the lower branches, seeking out the hidden enemy. A rain of needles sang after him, like a swarm of silver hornets.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted as he plunged into the darkness of the deeper forest. "Stay _with_ us! Remember Kakashi-_sensei's _orders!"

But her cries fell upon deaf ears; Naruto could not hear her over the hiss of needles through the air. Torn between keeping the group together and proceeding to safety, Sakura hesitated, pausing atop a moss-covered bough. Abruptly, Sasuke half-turned away from her, freeing his arm from her grasp. He leaned out over the branch and formed the Seal of the Tiger with both hands. In her effort to keep a hold of him, the balls of Sakura's feet skidded across the damp moss. Both of them nearly slipped off their perch and fell, but fortunately Sakura already had a _kunai _in her left hand, which she immediately jammed into the wood as hard as she could and hung on for dear life. Her other arm was now hooked around Sasuke's waist to prevent him from plummeting downward over the thick side of the bough. After recovering from the sudden jolt, Sasuke raised the tips of his fingers to his lips and blew.

A helix of fire when spiraling down into the darkness below, driving it back and bathing everything there in flickering orange light.

Down near the forest floor, Naruto squatted on a massive tree root, surveying the area with the aid of Sasuke's illumination. On his way down he had landed on a low branch and then executing a twisting leap sideways. As his body corkscrewed in mid-air his _chakra _formed a vortex that deflected the majority of the needles away from his vital points. As he landed in a crouch on the balls of his feet, the tiny weapons sank into the trees around him with vicious staccato. Keeping his head bowed so that his face was protected from any subsequent assaults, Naruto drew a _kunai _from his pouch and formed a quick one-handed seal with his right hand.

As his left arm curved around and released the knife, it was suddenly multiplied tenfold in number, flying out in all directions in a deadly shower of his own. This was the replication technique, applied to weaponry. A sudden burst of needles from among the shadows of the trees deflected many of the _kunai,_ and Naruto was forced to cover his face with both arms to keep from being cut. Yet even through the needles singing past his head he thought he heard the abrupt popping noise of a _ninjutsu _being dispelled.

'_But I can't see anyone,' _he thought in confusion as he peered between his fingers. The main draft of Sasuke's fire had already died, though some of the drier leaves nearby had caught fire and still cast a flickering, crackling light on the forest floor. Above him, Naruto could vaguely hear Sakura's voice, calling him back. But he elected to ignore her, setting his jaw and leaping off the root. He was determined to stop this hidden enemy from following his friends.

He began a slow, careful approach in what he thought was the direction the needles had come from, beginning to draw upon his greater reserves of _chakra _for Shadow Replication.

Then the darkness around him exploded, swallowing everything in a dizzying haze of flame and shrapnel. The shockwaves knocked him flat.

For a moment, Naruto thought he had gone deaf. He had landed hard on his back, and the impact had temporarily stunned him. Dimly he was aware that somehow the enemy had surrounded him with some sort of bombs, but at first this didn't make sense because there was no way such a large circle of bombs could have been planted around one specific area so quickly. He thought before that there had only been one attacker, because the needles were only coming from _one _direction at a time . . .

Then realization hit him, and he pushed himself upright: _Kage Bunshin. _The enemy had used Shadow Replication clones to plant the bombs; the sound he'd heard a moment ago had been the technique dispelling as the enemy fled to avoid the explosions.

Somewhat shakily, he pushed himself to his feet. The bombs had done their work; the forest immediately surrounding him was ablaze. The ringing in Naruto's ears faded a little, and he became aware of Sakura shouting his name from above. Hurriedly, Naruto clamored back onto the root and hoisted himself onto the nearest low branch. His first priority right now was getting off the forest floor, which was littered with dried autumn leaves and other materials that would be ideal for kindling. As he climbed higher, he could see Sasuke coming down to meet him, apparently having plucked the needles out of his legs. Further up in the tree, Sakura's pale face could be seen peering down at them both.

"Hurry!" she urged them. "We have to get away from here---if our enemy has allies, they'll see the light and be drawn right to us!"

Both boys glanced down at the forest floor, which was carpeted with tiny tongues of flame.

"Oil!" Sasuke exclaimed. "The needles were soaked in oil. That's why the fire isn't dying."

Naruto caught hold of Sasuke's hand, and the other Genin pulled him up onto the next branch. Then the two of them gathered _chakra _in their feet and began running up the tree trunk toward Sakura. Behind them, flames were beginning to lick at the roots. Both boys glanced downward over their shoulders something below caught fire with a loud crack.

"The tree's bark is thick," Sasuke said, looking sideways at Naruto. "It won't burn out from under us." Then, because he read hesitation in Naruto's expression, he added, "We can't waste time with putting it out. We have to obey Kakashi'sorders. We _must _find the road."

Then Sakura's scream echoed down from above.

Both Genin turned their faces upward in alarm. Sakura's face was no longer visible over the side of the bough; she was gone.

Naruto and Sasuke raced upward with renewed speed, all thoughts of flames and orders supplanted.

Upon reaching the branch, they found a stranger standing there, waiting for them. He stood a little ways back from the edge. They couldn't see him clearly because of the shadows, but he clearly wasn't Kakashi. In a flash, Naruto had a knifein each hand. Sasuke didn't bother reaching for his _kunai _pouch this time; his hands moved swiftly, beginning to form the seal for _Chidori._ Then he clasped one hand around the wrist of the other, and electricity began to gather in his palm. The stranger stepped back a pace, eyeing the lightning playing about the Genin's fist, but he made no move to defend himself.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he said softly.

Sasuke froze.

"How do you know me?" he demanded in a low, dangerous tone. The electricity in his palm flickered distorted shadows across his face.

"Sasuke." Sakura stepped out from behind the man, who had been blocking Sasuke's view of her. "This is Arashi Shikyo of the Hidden Village of Rain---the man we're supposed to be meeting."

Naruto had just finished climbing onto the bough, but the man ignored him. His sharp gaze traveled from the electricity in Sasuke's hand to the forest below, where the fire was still blazing healthily.

"The road isn't far," the man explained. "I heard the explosion and knew that it was your party being attacked."

Sasuke didn't seem convinced; the _jutsu _in his hand didn't fade. His gaze traveled slowly between Sakura and the stranger, and the Sharingan stained his eyes crimson. He was trying to gauge the truth of the man's story.

"He's not lying," Sakura reassured him. "He just startled me at first."

Slowly, Sasuke lowered his fist, and the light died.

"We don't have time for full-fledged introductions," the man told them, brushing past Sasuke and Naruto to peer over the edge of the bough. "The bombs and the needles are a terrorist technique used by the assassins to drive their targets into positions of vulnerability."

"Vulnerability?" Sasuke asked, frowning down at the fire below. "How could we possibly have been any more vulnerable than we already _were, _running across the branches in the dark?"

"You don't know the enemy like I do," the man snapped. "If they had succeeded in luring you to the forest floor, and I had not come, the three of you would be dead by now. Now go! Do not engage the enemy, do not let them touch you!"

Naruto, who didn't need to be told twice, grabbed Sasuke by the sleeve and pulled him along. Together the three of them raced toward the clearing ahead. No more needles hurtled toward them as they went, but behind them the stranger appeared to be preparing to do battle with someone. When Naruto glanced over his shoulder he saw some sort of liquid gravitating toward the man's upraised fist from all directions.

'_A water technique?' _Naruto wondered.

Then they passed beyond range of view.

By the time the three of them reached the clearing, they were breathing hard---though more from tension than from exhaustion. The road stretched out from east to west; apparently this was well past then eastern fork. The moon shone down on the long stretch of dirt, fading it to gray.

Standing in the shadows of the trees at its opposite edge was Kakashi.

"Kakashi-_sensei_!" Sakura exclaimed in relief.

Naruto made ready to leap down from the branches, but Sasuke caught him by the collar and held him back.

"Don't go," he warned in a low voice, his eyes on the man standing silently on the road. "That isn't Kakashi."

The man's head was turned upward toward them; he was obviously aware of their presence, but he made no move to cross the road and approach them.

"Someone using the Transformation Technique?" Sakura whispered to Sasuke, who nodded but didn't take his eyes off the impostor.

'_If he's wearing Kakashi-sensei's face he must've seen him before,' _Naruto thought worriedly, fingering the _kunai _in his hand. _'Why hasn't Kakashi-sensei come yet? He can't have met this guy in combat . . . and lost?'_

The three Genin crouched tensely atop the tree limb, waiting for the enemy to make his first move. The man standing in the shadows opposite them stood utterly still, and made no move to attack.

After several moments had passed like this, Sasuke made a vague noise of impatience and drew his _shuriken _forth from the pack on his back.

"We're going to attack," he told his teammates grimly. "He probably has needles, and bombs. Be prepared for that." Then he shifted his weight on the branch, preparing to descend.

"Wait!" Sakura tugged at his sleeve. "Shikyo-_san _warned us that the enemy wanted to lure us to the _ground._ There must be something dangerous about engaging them at earth-level!"

Sasuke's dark eyes narrowed, and he jerked his sleeve free of her grasp. Slowly, he pulled back the arm holding the _shuriken _in preparation to throw it in a curve toward the man below. The impostor clearly saw what the Chuunin intended, but still he made no move.

However, before Sasuke could begin any sort of attack, another man wearing Kakashi's face stepped out from among the trees. He appeared a little ways down the road from where the three of them had emerged; if he was the real Kakashi then their paths had not diverged drastically at all. Naruto thought this was somewhat suspicious, because they had been separated for so long and also because both Kakashi and his students had been attacked and doubtlessly driven off-course. Sakura seemed to be harboring similar suspicions.

"Sasuke . . . is that Kakashi-_sensei_?" she asked nervously, drawing eight _kunai _at once between her fingers.

The Sharingan's wheels turned in Sasuke's eyes, and he frowned.

"It is."

On the road below, the impostor's gaze lowered and turned toward his new opponent, who was approaching him slowly and cautiously. However, as Kakashi drew nearer, his students could see that caution wasn't the only thing slowing him down. He was breathing hard, and some of his clothing was torn, though he still carried his pack of supplies strapped across his back. Both sleeves of the dark green shirt he wore were soaked through with what appeared to be blood.

His Sharingan eye was uncovered.

He glanced up briefly at his students, crouched in the tree, but then his gaze returned to the impostor.

"You three---stay where you are," he called up to them. His voice sounded very tight and strained.

The impostor waited in silence as Kakashi approached him. There was nothing mocking about the man's lack of response---he was not implying by his stillness that Kakashi wasn't a worthy opponent. Rather, his gaze upon the Jounin was fiercely intent, like a predator gauging the strength of its prey. It was a look that Sasuke understood.

"He's going to let Kakashi attack first," the Genin murmured, watching them. He had not lowered the arm holding the _shuriken._

Slowly, but with surprising steadiness for someone whose arms were drenched with blood, Kakashi reached one arm behind his head and drew something forth that had been strapped to the underside of his pack. It gleamed in the moonlight as he brought it up to bear in front of him: a short sword. Now that his concealed weapon was free of its scabbard, he let the pack slip from his shoulders and fall onto the dirt behind him.

His three students watched in silence, mystified. Never during training or during any of the battles they had shared had they seen Kakashi favor using any sort of weapon---and it seemed particularly odd now because his Sharingan eye was exposed. For someone dubbed the "Copy Ninja," the Sharingan alone should have been enough; the sword seemed superfluous and unnecessary.

But Kakashi gripped the sword's hilt with both hands, turning the blade horizontal and level with his opponent's heart, clearly intending to attack with it. Slowly he circled the impostor, moving around the man in an ever-tightening spiral. The man stood utterly still even when Kakashi circled behind him, clearly refusing to let his opponent goad him into attacking first.

A cold breeze stole along the road, stirring the leaves that lay at the feet of the two men.

"Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto," he called sharply, without taking his eyes off the enemy. "If I should fall, you'll go straight back to Konoha. No hesitating. If I fall, you flee. From now on, any enemy that you meet, you _must not let them touch you. _Understood? Not even a finger. And you must not use _ninjutsu _against them." None of his students could see his face; his white hair fell across his brow, hiding his eyes in shadow.

"What are you---?" Sakura began, but at that instant Kakashi launched an offense.

"_Konoha no Senpuu!" _he cried, in a voice that rang through the forest.

Then the clearing was full of wind.

Leaves blew downward from the surrounding trees, rustling loudly as the wind snapped them off the branches. The three younger ninja were forced to press themselves tightly against the trunk of the tree they were perched in, for the wind was strong enough to topple them from their eyrie. It shrieked and whistled between the branches, drawing every bit of debris into its current. At this speed the leaves were razor-sharp, and they were forced to look away from the battle to cover their faces and necks as well to keep from being slashed in vital areas. The hiss of blowing leaves and the buffeting wind was nearly deafening. The moon and sky were temporarily obscured as the clearing became filled with a whirlwind of leaves.

When the main stream of debris has finally subsided, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were able to uncover their eyes and peer down into the maelstrom below. Amid the tornado of leaves, they could see that the impostor had finally moved to defend himself. The illusion he'd cast to give him the Jounin's appearance had melted away, but they couldn't see his true appearance clearly. All that they could make out was that he was tall and lean like Kakashi, and that he moved with equal swiftness. In between the leaves the moonlight glimmered off of Kakashi's sword, and then disappeared as he swung it. The technique the Jounin was using involved swinging the sword in a complex series of arcs on either side of his body. His hands moved so fast that only the blade could be seen when it caught the light. His opponent, on the other hand, did not seem to be using any offensive techniques at all. He seemed to be devoting all his energy to avoiding being struck by the lightning-fast blade in Kakashi's hand, using what appeared to be some kind of liquid shield about his hands and arms.

"He isn't fighting back" Sakura murmured wonderingly. "If he was that weak and he knew Kakashi-_sensei's _strength, why on earth did he pick a fight?"

"Biding his time," Sasuke replied, one hand clenched around his _shuriken _as he watched the fight. "He's waiting for an opening . . . But for what?"

Kakashi's objective, on the other hand, seemed to be to kill the man outright. Every second the sword sliced near one of his enemy's vital areas. Oftentimes it hit, though the man dodged with lightning speed surpassing even the Jounin's and avoided being struck down. He'd even abandoned the _Konoha no Senpuu _technique to concentrate on swordplay, and the leaves around him swirled lifelessly to the ground. Naruto watched the battle with a scowl.

'_The impostor doesn't seem to care if he's hurt,' _he thought.

"I _see,_" Sasuke whispered excitedly. His black eyes opened wide as if in response to a sudden epiphany. "I see! Kakashi said _'you must not let them touch you.' _He's using only the sword to fight, because _he's trying to avoid being touched by his opponent."_

Sakura glanced over at him.

"But why isn't he using one of his _ninjutsu_? Some of his most powerful techniques are long-range."

Sasuke shook his head.

"He told us not to use _ninjutsu. _There has to be a reason. At any rate, he must have met other _shinobi _in the forest and used too much _chakra _already. You saw him; he looks exhausted."

'_Who are these people?' _Naruto wondered. _'These are the assassins we'll face?' _It took a truly deadly opponent to exhaust Kakashi.

"A hit!" Sakura exclaimed suddenly, taking an involuntary step closer to the edge of the branch.

True to her word, Kakashi had scored what appeared to be a mortal wound. The Jounin's opponent had finally made an offensive move, lunging for Kakashi with a sudden flash of multiple blades in his right hand. Yet none of the blades touched Kakashi, for at moment the Jounin altered the angle of his sword's arc mid-slash and instead caught the enemy straight through the chest. The man let out a cry of agony; it was a serious blow. Straight through the lung, next to the heart and its descending arteries. The man's right hand released the blades between his fingers and flew to the length of the sword embedded in his flesh, as if attempting to block the blow out of reflex even though it was already too late. Then the liquid shield around his arm flowed from his wrist to the sword, wrapping itself around the blade as if he intended to pull it out.

'_No,'_ Naruto realized in dawning horror. _'Not to pull it out---he's using his Mizutate jutsu to pull the sword in . . .'_

As if in confirmation of Naruto's observation, the impostor's hand closed around the blade and began pulling the sword deeper into him with both flesh and _chakra_. That the sword's razor-sharp edge was slicing the flesh of his hand to ribbons did not seem to deter him. He knew he was a dead man, and it seemed he had only one thought now: to take his opponent with him to the underworld.

His right hand and its _Mizutate _gripped the sword . . .

. . . but his left hand was free.

Kakashi realized it too late. The enemy's _Mizutate _spiraled up the sword and over Kakashi's own wrist. Kakashi tried to release his hold on the hilt, but he could not break free of the liquid. His concentration was broken. With his free left hand, the enemy was working a very swift and complicated one-handed seal. Naruto stared at it in amazement; the man's hand moved so fast it was nearly impossible to see his fingers.

Even from twenty feet up, Kakashi's students could see the sweat streaming down the sides of their teacher's face. He reached for his _kunai _pouch, but for some reason it was gone---it had evidently been torn from his pant-leg at some point in the forest.

Kakashi had been rendered weaponless.

In the moment that followed, everything happened at once. Ignoring the protests of his companions, Sasuke leapt from the branch with a muttered curse, hurling his _shuriken _as he jumped. The enemy completed his one-handed seal and quickly dipped the tips of his fingers in his own blood, which stained the sword-blade in front of him. Sakura gasped in fear; there was something eerily precise about the dying man's attack that suggested a great deal more power was being put into this strange _jutsu _than any normal attack. Sasuke's _shuriken _cut through the winds of Kakashi's Konoha Whirlwind _jutsu_, slicing across the enemy's throat. Kakashi half-turned and tried once again to pull away from the man's shield _jutsu_ and caught sight of Sasuke running toward him, _kunai _in hand. The enemy's head turned quickly as well even as the wind spattered blood from the wound on his throat in all directions. His pale face turned directly toward Sasuke.

"No!" Kakashi shouted, going wide-eyed with alarm. "Sasuke, go back!"

But the enemy's face turned away from Sasuke just as swiftly, and his hand shot forward toward Kakashi's right arm, which was held fast to the sword by the _Mizutate. _Clearly his intent was to attack while Kakashi's attention was temporarily diverted. Even if the white-haired Jounin had turned away from Sasuke a split-second sooner, he would not have been able to free himself quickly enough to dodge the attack.

There came a sickening crunch of bone, and then a fountain of blood spiraled downward amid the falling leaves.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

**A Valley Somewhere Northwest of Konoha; Exact Location Unknown**

A lone man stood within the sentry tower atop the high walls, gazing down into the forest as the moon set behind the hills. He stood in the shadows beneath the tower's thatched roof, for at the angle where the moon now hovered in the sky the light would cast a glare upon the lenses of his glasses, and he preferred being able to see the forest clearly. He was waiting for a party of important guests to arrive---the sort who would not take kindly to being ignored or delayed in their business here.

The sort whom it would be dangerous to ignore.

A cloud passed before the moon, and then slid onward into the night. When it had passed, a group of nine _shinobi _stood silently in front of the wooden gate below. The man atop the sentry tower spotted them immediately and, after hastening to the inner edge of the wall, leaned over the railing and signaled to the watchmen posted at the gate. The group outside stood patiently and utterly still as there came a grinding of pulleys from within. Then the gates swung open with a groan of wood as the watchmen rolled the weights aside.

The young man descended from the walls, ignoring the ladders positioned nearby and simply leaping the twenty feet to ground-level. He moved swiftly between the open gates and strode into the midst of the visitors, who watched him in expectant silence. All of them wore voluminous black capes over their shoulders, which heightened the impression that they were a group of stone statues, planted in the forest just beyond the Village gates. The young man surveyed them with sharp eyes, crossing his arms over his gray-clad chest. Given the strangeness of recent events, he had expected them to come here bearing accusations against his master. He had expected them, but nonetheless they had come solely of their own authority, and their presence here was uninvited.

"You sent word that nine would be coming," he told them. "But I see only eight."

One of the cloaked figures stepped forward, addressing him with a frown.

"We met with some . . . heavy interference in the forest. One of our numbers was killed." He nodded toward the open gates. "We will speak with Orochimaru on this matter." The man paused, and then added in darker tones, "He has muchto answer for."

The young man nodded, and a sly smile crept across his lips.

"Well, then," he said, addressing the group as a whole. "Come, representatives of AkatsukiMy master awaits your council." He bowed low, and the dying moonlight flashed in the lenses of his glasses. "The Otokage wishes me to bid you welcome . . . to the Hidden Village of Sound."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

**The Aoite Road, Thirty Miles Southeast of Konoha**

The leaves borne upward by Kakashi's whirlwind still sank slowly toward the earth as the swift rush of air faded and dispersed. Through the soft rain of debris falling around the two warriors locked in combat, Naruto saw the enemy's outstretched fingers had been stopped inches from Kakashi's wrist. A sword protruded through the enemy's wrist, at the critical joint where the veins converged; this was what had stopped him from touching Kakashi.

"Who---how---?" Sakura stammered, but Naruto had already jumped down from the tree limb after Sasuke, and was heading pell-mell for Kakashi. Then she happened to glance down and saw the man who had just entered the clearing below her.

"Kakashi-_san_! Move away from him!" Shikyo called in a low, urgent tone.

Kakashi did not take his eyes off the enemy in front of him. The man stood frozen in surprise, still grasping Kakashi's blade with his right hand. His eyes upon Kakashi were wide and intense---crazed, like a man staring into hell itself. For one horrible moment, Naruto thought he was going to try to reach Kakashi again to finish the attack. Reaching into his _kunai _pouch, the young Genin pulled out three knives, which he slipped between his fingers in preparation to throw.

Sasuke, however, appeared to have abandoned all inclination to attack. The dark-haired Genin had come to a halt the instant the sword struck the enemy's wrist.

Though the impostor's eyes were trained madly upon Kakashi's face, he was a dead man on his feet. A horrid gurgling arose in his throat, which Sasuke's _shuriken _had slit, and a gout of blood fountained over his lower lip, washing down the front of the black vest that he wore. As the enemy's dying breath dyed his chest crimson, the _Mizutate jutsu _binding Kakashi's arm to the sword trickled to the ground. The impostor sank to his knees, one hand still outstretched toward Kakashi, who backed away, lowering the sword. His shield fell away from his arms and trickled onto the dirt; it had turned out to be made of sand, not water.

The assassin's outstretched hand was the last part of him to fall, despite the weight of Shikyo's sword impaling the his wrist.

Naruto skidded to an abrupt halt beside Sasuke, who stared at this grim spectacle with a face deathly pale as the dying man's.

"Kakashi-_sensei_!" Sakura called, descending from the tree and hurrying toward them.

Kakashi finally took notice of his students again. His face was as white as Sasuke's, though he stood firm and unflinching.

"Naruto . . . Sasuke . . . stand back," he ordered them, in a voice hoarse from tension. His eyes were heavy-lidded from exhaustion but still wary, and he added as he stepped backward a few paces, "You're going to feel it when he dies."

These words stopped Sakura dead in her tracks, and she glanced questioningly at the Jounin. However, he offered no further explanation, sinking to his knees upon the road amid the debris strewn across it.

Something very odd was happening to the dead man. On his face, and on the skin of his hand, red sigils trailed their way across his flesh like veins---even across his lips, which were drawn back in a grimace of horror. The fingers of the hand stretched toward Kakashi curled claw-like into the dirt. Then the man's entire body went stiff, as if rigor mortis had already set in.

"Get _back_," Shikyo ordered Naruto and Sasuke, moving to stand between them and pushing them both even further backward with a hand on each boy's chest. "The further away from him you are, the better." Neither of them offered any protest.

Abruptly, the enemy's body contorted, the limbs splaying out at odd angles. Sakura let out a little scream; it looked as if something had possessed the corpse. Then the body went limp, slumping down again to lie prone against the earth. An eerie pulse of something like pure energy radiated outward from the man's inert form, propagating wavelike in every direction. Naruto did not understand exactly what the wave was; its passage was only vaguely evident to the eyes of all present. The air wavered where it passed, as if each of them were looking at it through a shaken glass of water. They could not properly seeit, but all who were present feltit in the very marrow of their bones. It was cold---deathly cold, like ice against the flesh, chilling so intensely that it burned. Yet it only touched them for an instant, and then this, too passed. In its wake, it left them standing shaken and whey-faced and very much unnerved.

The sigils on the dead man's skin had vanished.

Kakashi bowed his head, rubbing the sweat off his brow beneath his forehead protector. He let out a long, deep sigh. At Naruto's side, Sasuke sank to his knees. Naruto glanced down at him in alarm; the other boy's face was oddly blank, and very pale.

"Sasuke-_kun_!" Sakura cried, hastening to his side. "Are you all right?" She knelt beside him, peering up into his face with concern.

Sasuke offered no reply, but her voice seemed to bring him to his senses. Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet. His legs were shaking. Ultimately, it had been his _shuriken _that slew the impostor.

"You've never killed before, have you, Uchiha Sasuke?" Shikyo asked softly. The Mizutou _shinobi_ looked as if he were about to lay a reassuring hand on the Genin's shoulder, but then seemed to think better of it. Instead, Shikyo turned to address the others. "Kakashi, you're unharmed?"

The Jounin lifted his head and nodded, but made no move to get up.

"Yes, but I need to rest before we move on," he said hoarsely. "I've used up most of my _chakra_, and I don't think there will be another attack for tonight, at least. If events proceed according to this group's past actions, they won't dispatch any more than ten at a time."

"Ten?" Sakura exclaimed, staring at Kakashi in unabashed amazement. "Kakashi-_sensei, _what happened to you in the forest?"

The ghost of a smile returned some of the life to the Jounin's face.

"Five attacked me. I believe between us we've dispatched them all."

"You mean . . . you killed them all?" Sasuke asked, his gaze traveling back and forth between the Jounin and the dead man on the road. "Were they all . . . like this one?"

'_He killed five of them?' _Naruto thought, gaping at the Jounin. _'By himself? No wonder he's exhausted.' _Then his gaze slid sideways to Shikyo. If Kakashi had killed five of the ten assassins, then that meant Shikyo had killed the other five. _'Who is this guy?' _Naruto found himself wondering as he stared at the short, quiet _shinobi _standing beside him.

Shikyo had a very narrow, angular face, blue eyes, and brows that slanted upward over his temples. His hair was black, but with an odd bluish sheen to it that suggested a bloodline trait of his clan. He wore it bound atop his head in a topknot that hung loose at the end like a horse's tail. His movements were fluid and quick; Naruto recalled how the sword he had flung to impale the impostor's hand had flown so swiftly it blurred. And Shikyo's eyes were pale blue and very hard-looking; he looked as if he had killed many times.

A significant glance now passed between Kakashi and Shikyo, but Kakashi shook his head. Shikyo turned toward Kakashi's students, a faint frown creasing his brow.

"The cold feeling will pass," he told them. They were all still very pale. "But are you injured in any way? Sakura? Sasuke?" He paused, and then turned toward the third member of their team. "Naruto?"

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, but only a hoarse choking noise emerged from his throat.

"Naruto, your neck . . ." Sakura said suddenly, gazing up at his back from where she knelt.

Naruto's hands flew immediately to his throat, feeling around for the source of the problem. Shikyo located it first, pushing the Genin's hands away and touching a point on the side of his neck.

"Hold still," he ordered. Then he yanked the needle free.

"Ow!" Naruto rasped as the point came clear of his skin. He clapped one hand against it as blood began to trickle from the wound.

"That hit him pretty near the jugular vein for being thrown in the dark," Sasuke remarked, standing up and peering at the injury.

Shikyo's eyes narrowed as he pried Naruto's fingers aside and probed the wound carefully.

"Kakashi-_san, _his voice will---"

"Naruto will be fine," Kakashi interrupted. "He'll heal quickly." The Jounin spoke nonchalantly, but in such a way as to clearly indicate that this was not a topic to be discussed at length.

Naruto glanced up at Shikyo out of the corner of his eye.

'_Does Shikyo-san know about the Nine-Tails?' _he wondered. But he didn't have the freedom to ask that here.

"When is someone going to explain _that _to us?" Sasuke asked, turning away from Naruto and nodding toward the corpse in the road.

"We have to tell them immediately," Shikyo told Kakashi grimly. "The sooner they know, the better we can train them in the ways to survive against it."

The Jounin rested his hands against his thighs. He was no longer breathing heavily, but a cold sweat had beaded on his brow. He nodded briskly.

Shikyo walked to the edge of the road and retrieved his pack, which he'd flung to the ground before joining the skirmish. Then he walked over to the dead man, planted one leather-sandaled foot on the man's palm, and yanked the sword he had thrown free of the man's wrist.

"Ten men like this were sent to kill us," he began, nudging the dead man's elbow with the toe of his sandal. "Kakashi and I were able to kill them all, between us, because of the _kenjutsu _we've learned to combat the assassins' main technique. You three will have to learn it as well if you're to be of any use on this mission." He glanced over his shoulder, offering them a faint smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Lord Garyu appears to have faith that you will."

"This technique . . ." Sasuke murmured, seating himself cross-legged atop a nearby boulder. "You mean the strange _jutsu _the enemy used as he died?"

"It's called _'Shinkuhana',_" Shikyo answered, still examining the corpse. It seemed he felt it was safe to touch the man's flesh now. "The 'Crimson Blossom' skill." Leaning forward, he removed the dead man's cloth head-guard and plucked a few of his hairs.

Naruto watched him do this with a look of ill-concealed disgust. Kakashi must have noticed the look and sensed that the Genin was about to interrupt with some comment on it, because he cleared his throat loudly.

"Ahem. Naruto, come here," he ordered, beckoning with one blood-stained hand. "I'll see to the wound. Sakura, bring my pack."

As Sakura and Naruto moved to oblige him, Shikyo went on.

"It's not hard to guess whythat name was given to it," he remarked, pointing to the exposed skin of the dead man's forearm. "You saw the marks that appeared on his skin before the wave of _chakra _went out from his body. If the technique is done properly, all the assassin must do is _touch _the victim and a red sigil appears on the victim's body. And you can't mold _chakra _to combat it; it's like a poison that infects even the _chakra _fields that circulate around you. The more _chakra _you mold, the larger the surface area for the assassin to target. Its mark is a round sigil, and it spirals outward like the petals of a rose. All of this happens in the brief instant between the touch and the victim's death. The victim will die a split-second after he's touched, and the sigil will disappear. It's the ultimate assassin's technique---it kills swiftly and silently, and leaves no mark on the body to bear evidence. _Chakra _use only makes it deadlier. And it only requires one hand to perform the seal."

"How?" Sasuke insisted, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "_How _does it kill? What is it that the seal does that kills so quickly?"

"_Kataame," _Shikyo murmured, forming a quick, fluid seal. Droplets of water rose from the dirt around him, and spattered down briefly from the trees above to gather in a sort of hovering puddle above his hand. Keeping his eyes trained on the puddle, Shikyo lifted his sword and stuck it through the water. Then, having successfully wet the sword, he proceeded to clean it on the cloth he'd removed from the dead man's head.

"Now . . . You ask about the method. Well, the actual methodis almost laughably simple. The assassin performs the seal and dips those fingers in his own blood. When he does that, he is using the very _chakra _that sustains his life to open a sort of vortex between him and his intended victim. If the blood on his fingers touches _any_ part of the victim's body or _chakra _field---regardless of whether it's vital or not---the vortex draws _all _of that person's _chakra _into itself.

"Think of it like electricity---like your _Chidori_, Sasuke. The assassin is creating a positive charge with his _chakra_. That is the ground---the earth. Then it draws the negative charge of the lightning---the _chakra _sustaining the victim's life. Together, they clash; lightning strikes. Only this lightning isn't bright; it burns red sigils into the victim's skin. And this vortex---this meeting of positive and negative _chakras_---causes both to cancel each other out."

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura asked, cutting bandages and handing them to Kakashi.

Shikyo had finished washing his sword and was now drying it carefully against the dark blue fabric of his _haori._

"The ultimate assassin's technique comes with a terrible price," he said darkly. "When I say that both _chakras _cancel each other out, I mean that both victim _and _wielder will draw their last breath at the same moment. In order for _Shinkuhana _to work, it must kill the one who performed the seal."

"How horrible," Sakura breathed. "You'd have to _really _want to kill someone to use it."

"Kakashi-_sensei, _you're hurting me," Naruto croaked, his hands flying to his throat.

"Oh . . . I'm sorry, Naruto." Kakashi loosened the bandages around the Genin's neck, making an effort to be gentler as he did so.

"But howis thatthe ultimate technique?" Sasuke insisted, staring at Shikyo's blue-clad back. "To throw your life away, when your target may not even die?"

Shikyo finished drying the sword and proceeded to lift Sasuke's _shuriken _out of the dirt to wash it.

"The assassin won't die if his fingers are unable to touch his victim. His _chakra _merely resumes its normal flow and he remains unharmed." He nodded toward the dead man. "This one never touched Kakashi's flesh or _chakra _field because Kakashi-_san _molded no _chakra_. Instead, this assassin died when your weapon slit his throat, before the technique could be dispelled. That's why you felt the wave sent out from his body. That was his _chakra _leaving him and dispersing into the air. It felt cold because its flow had been reversed to perform the _Shinkuhana._ However. . . If the victim _is _touched, then there is no cure. The target dies instantly, without even the time to utter a cry. There are none who can withstand this technique. There is no _chakra _great enough to withstand it. In fact, the greater the _chakra _potential, the greater the danger."

He hefted the newly-cleansed _shuriken _in one hand and tossed it over to Sasuke, who caught it and sat there studying it, as if the dead man's blood might have left some imprint upon its fan-like blades.

"Kakashi-_san _and I will be teaching you _kenjutsu_ to prepare you for the dangers ahead," Shikyo informed them, pushing himself to his feet and brushing the dirt off his pants. "If ever you find yourselves in a position where your physical enduranceis greatly depleted but your enemies keep coming, you will need to use a sword to keep them at a distance---to prevent them from touching you." He turned a shrewd blue eye in Sasuke's direction. "Long-range weapons like _shuriken _will do for the journey, but in Mizutou the quarters will be much closer. The city has narrow streets and enclosed buildings with narrow halls. When you encounter assassins there, they may only be two feet away from you."

Naruto stared at the Mizutou _shinobi _in silence. _"The target dies instantly, without even the time to utter a cry . . ." _These words chilled him to the bone---not so much out of fear for himself but out of horror that someone could be killed that easily.

Sasuke was thinking to himself, _'Sannin-level ninja like Orochimaru or Itachi would never use such a technique. They wouldn't want to kill anyone badly enough to sacrifice themselves. They're too selfish, and too intent upon living to enact their agendas.' _His eyes narrowed as he contemplated the blades of his _shuriken._ _'Itachi . . .'_

"Kakashi-_san_, this is the first of the _Shinkuhana _assassins that I've gotten a proper look at," Shikyo told the Jounin. He held up the lock of hair he'd plucked from the man's head. "Orange hair. And he used a sand-shield technique to block your sword. These alone are enough evidence to prove that he's _not _a Mist Ninja."

Kakashi finished dressing Naruto's wound and rose to his feet. The two men regarded each other for a moment; a grim understanding passing between them that none of the Genin present could fathom. Then Kakashi tilted back his head to gaze at the sky. A vague, fuzzy dawn was beginning over the treetops, but its light was gray because a thick blanket of clouds now stretched across the horizon.

"We should find an inn," he decided, slipping his pack back over his lean shoulders. "It will rain soon, and we'll need sleep before we head out into the forest again."

His students complied, re-shouldering their own supplies and hurrying over to join him. Sasuke snapped his _shuriken _blades closed with a sharp _snick _and reinserted it into his pack.

"Sakura-_chan, _you look pale," Naruto rasped, peering at her anxiously. Mutely, Sakura shook her head. She was regarding Naruto in return and thinking, _'He's been impaled through the throat and he still looks the healthiest out of all of us.'_

Then she noticed Shikyo watching Naruto out of the corner of his cold blue eye, and rightly guessed that the Rain ninja was thinking something along the same lines. She decided she didn't like Shikyo much.

"Kakashi-_sensei,_ do you know this technique?" Sasuke asked suddenly as he hurried after the Jounin. "This '_Shinkuhana'_?"

There was a moment of silence, in which Kakashi didn't answer and the eyes of all present turned toward him. The Jounin didn't slow down or face any of them.

Then he finally answered, quietly, "Yes."

A thousand questions flooded Naruto's mouth, but as the first word rolled off his tongue his wound throbbed and he decided they could wait until after it had healed.

Sasuke, however, appeared to have only one agenda. His dark eyes had a faraway, shadowed look to them, as if he were seeing not the road ahead but some grim specter of the past.

"You know '_Shinkuhana'_," he murmured slowly. "Are you going to teach it to us?"

This time Kakashi paused mid-step.

"No."

Then he resumed walking, leaving the three Genin to stare at his back and wonder.

**END OF CHAPTER 2**


	3. Kenjutsu Training: The Three Cross Blade...

_Author's Note: A "boken" is a wooden practice sword. "Hajime" means "begin." Uh . . . just to warn all present, this chapter definitely earns its rating for violence. Sort of pushes the rating's limits, actually . . . Kinda icky, even for me._

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**oo Chapter 3: _Kenjutsu_ Training: The Three Cross Blades oo**

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

The road northward led them deeper into the soft autumn rainfall, which pattered pleasantly on the leaves and rather unpleasantly on their heads as they walked.

Naturally, this put Sakura in the foulest of moods, partly because Sasuke had lapsed into silent brooding since the _Shinkuhana _incident and partly because the moisture in the air made her pink hair frizzy.

"Naruto, why are you twitching your nose like that? You look like a dog about to sneeze."

Naruto sniffed loudly, scratching at the outside of one nostril with his pinky.

"Well, it smells good out here," he replied with a fox-like grin. "The rain makes the trees smell fresh. Right, Sasuke?" He turned expectantly toward the dark-haired Genin, but Sasuke ignored him, staring moodily at a spot somewhere near the middle of Kakashi's back.

"We should come to a town soon," Shikyo said, falling back a little to match their pace. "We'll get you some food, and you'll finally be able to sleep."

Ahead of them, Kakashi's head lifted sharply.

"They need to begin training immediately," he said quietly. "I don't want a repeat of last night."

Shikyo turned away from the three Genin to frown at the back of Kakashi's head.

"You need rest as well, Kakashi-_san_," he told the Jounin. "The last thing I need is a _Shinkuhana _expert who's half-dead from exhaustion and nearly empty of _chakra._"

Kakashi made no reply to this, which earned him Naruto's immediate attention because it put the possible future consumption of ramen on the line.

"Hey, hey, Kakashi-_sensei_!" he croaked, scurrying around to stand in front of the Jounin. "I don't care about sleep, but we can still eat, right? Right?" The pain from the wound on his neck had already died down enough to be eclipsed by the need to defend his right to breakfast.

"Speak for yourself," Sakura muttered, tugging at the straps of her pack to give her shoulders a moment's respite from its weight. She had never been a morning person, especially when she'd spent the night dodging assassins in near-complete darkness.

Kakashi eyed the Genin in front of him with what appeared to be a vague frown, judging from the slight narrowing of his one visible eye. Naruto was walking backwards to keep from getting in the Jounin's way and grinning up at him hopefully. After a moment of thoughtful silence, the faint knit of Kakashi's brow smoothed and he let slip a brief smile.

"Well, I did say I knew the inns along this road," he admitted blandly, sounding more like himself.

"_Yatta!" _Naruto exclaimed, jumping a good three feet and punching the air with one fist. Then he landed with a thud, clutching his throat with both hands and coughing.

Kakashi's frown returned as the Genin scurried along the road ahead of him.

"Food first, but then you train," he admonished.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

Another hour passed, and another. The rain let up, and the sun began to burn through the cloud-layer in places, dotting the land haphazardly with patches of yellow. The Aoite Road rounded a bend and veered due south.

"_Oi_ . . . Kakashi-_sensei_." Naruto's previously cheery expression had evaporated, and now his impish face had settled into a rather square-shaped pout. "You're not _lost _are you?"

Kakashi's chin lifted a little, and his gaze turned toward somewhere above Naruto's head.

"If you weren't walking backwards and squinting at me," he said blithely, "then you might've noticed the village beyond those trees ahead. You can see it from here, you know."

Naruto turned in a hurry, and upon catching sight of what Kakashi was looking at, took off in that direction with a grin.

His forward progress was arrested, however, by Kakashi's hand catching hold of the back of his collar. His sandaled feet nearly skidded out from under him.

"Stay with us," the Jounin admonished, before Naruto could open his mouth to protest. "Until you learn _kenjutsu _to my satisfaction, you are not to go anywhereon this trip unless you are in the company of Shikyo or myself." Then he released Naruto's collar and turned to the two trudging along behind him. "That goes for all three of you."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded wordlessly; both of them were too tired to protest even if they'd had it in them. Naruto, on the other hand, was newly energized by the sight of civilization ahead.

"Hey, hey, hey, Kakashi-_sensei_! Everywhere? Even the _bathroom_?"

Kakashi scratched his head.

"Well, yes, I suppose."

Sasuke took this news without batting an eye. Sakura, on the other hand, suddenly looked as if she were about to burst a blood vessel. Naruto grinned impishly at her around Kakashi.

"Keep moving," Kakashi told him, giving him a bit of a shove before he could start harassing the one female member of the team.

The inn that the Jounin led them to was quiet and nearly entirely vacant, which, as he pointed out over lunch, was why he'd chosen it. It was run by an elderly couple and their daughter (who was eyeing Kakashi rather speculatively as she served them their meal). They knew him from several stays on missions in his ANBU days, which made Naruto wonder exactly whythey'd remembered him after all those years. The daughter, who was flaxen blond and rather buxom, certainly seemed to remember him; she kept hovering around their table and offering him tea or _sake _because out of the group he was the only one not eating.

"Go rest in the room, Kakashi-_san_," Shikyo urged him while the Genin practically shoveled ramen into their mouths. "I'll start them with _boken, _so it's doubtful they'll decapitate each other while you're sleeping."

Kakashi sat there for a minute with his eye at half-mast, staring dubiously at Naruto. Naruto, in turn, was squinting across the table at Sasuke.

'_I bet if anyone could chop a limb off with a boken, he could . . .'_ Naruto thought, slurping at the noodles dangling down his chin.

Kakashi was thinking: '_I hope Sasuke doesn't kill him.'_

But after his initial hesitation, the Jounin swung his long legs around the wooden bench and pushed himself up from the table.

"He'll make it to the room okay, won't he?" Sakura asked, pausing with her chopsticks poised over her steaming bowl. Kakashi's walk had a bit of a wobble to it.

Shikyo ignored her question.

"Very well," he said mildly, laying his own chopsticks across his empty bowl. "You three, hurry up with it. The sooner you begin practice, the sooner you'll be allowed to sleep."

All three pairs of young eyes turned his way. None of the Genin were entirely keen on being taught by the Rain ninja, but Sasuke had a pragmatic gleam in his eye that would have troubled Kakashi had the Jounin been there to notice it.

'_I wonder,' _Sasuke thought, '_if this Arashi Shikyo knows the Shinkuhana jutsu . . .'_

Shikyo had been the one to dispose of the assassin's corpse in the woods. In response to Kakashi's questioning glance he had merely said, "Acid," and left it at that. After the particularly gruesome imagery that brought to mind, no one had been particularly inclined to ask.

Now the three Leaf ninja finished their ramen and came up for air.

"All right!" Naruto pounded the table with his fist. "Let's go."

The four of them rose and left the kitchen, bowing briskly to the inn's cook before filing down the hall. Shikyo led them around two corners and through a sliding door into the inn's central courtyard. It appeared to have been an ornamental garden once, but now it was overgrown with weeds. They stepped off the wooden terrace that lined it and found themselves knee-deep in undergrowth.

Shikyo fished five _boken _out of his pack, which he then dumped unceremoniously on the ground at the center of the courtyard. Two of these he picked up; the other three he nodded toward and grunted, indicating that the Genin were to pick their own. Naruto practically dived for his.

"Hey, hey, Shikyo-_san_, why do _you_ have two?" Naruto protested once he had emerged from the weeds with his _boken. _

The Rain ninja crossed his swords in front of him, tossing the blue-black hair hanging from his topknot over one shoulder.

"I want you all to come at me at once," he told them, smiling mirthlessly. "Pretend I'm an assassin. No _ninjutsu. _I want to see what I have to work with."

All three of them raised their _boken _into various positions of readiness. Shikyo made a soft noise of impatience, sinking his stance.

"Well? _Hajime."_

Sasuke and Naruto flew at him from either side. Sasuke kept his sword low during the charge, but with the intent of using a feint to conceal his real target: Shikyo's neck. From what he had observed during Kakashi's battle with the assassin on the road, _that _man had betrayed a weakness in his skills when it came to protecting his throat. Of course, Sasuke's _shuriken _might not have struck the assassin had the man not been on a suicide mission. The man hadn't exactly put forth the most valiant effort to defend himself. However, this was all that Sasuke had to go on-none of Team Seven's members had ever trained for swordplay. Naruto's intended strategy was more straightforward: to hit Shikyo as hard as he could in the wrist. There was a nerve there which, if hit just right, would make the older _shinobi _release his sword.

Neither boy's attack hit the mark. Shikyo used the side of his right arm to turn Naruto's blow aside, and then proceeded to knock the yellow-haired Genin in the gut with the hilt of the sword in his right hand. Simultaneously, the Rain ninja easily anticipated Sasuke's feint and stopped a crosswise blow from the boy's _boken _with the sword in his left hand, snapping it upward in front of his neck. Sasuke's blade struck Shikyo's with a loud crack, and then Shikyo used the weight of his left arm to thrust the dark-haired Genin away from him. Sasuke staggered backward a few steps from the force of the counter, and then lost his balance and fell on his backside in the long grass.

Naruto landed hard, gasping and doubled up; he'd had the wind knocked out of him. Sasuke merely sat where he'd fallen, looking quite stunned because all of this had happened so quickly.

Sakura had not moved at all.

She stood ten feet away from Shikyo, still holding her _boken _out in front of her in a position of readiness, with her feet planted shoulder-width apart.

Slowly, Shikyo lowered his swords and rose from his low stance.

"Very good, Sakura-_chan_," he told her, nodding his approval. Then he pointed the _boken _in either hand down at the two boys. "As for you both, you're dead."

Naruto's jaw dropped, and Sasuke's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Mark well what your teammate has done," Shikyo told them sternly. "One of you tell me what she's done right."

Sasuke's look of incredulity faded, and his chin lowered.

"I _see_," he muttered, glowering at the Rain ninja's feet. "She didn't attack. She waited to see what maneuvers you would use against us."

Shikyo shook his head, dropping the two practice swords into the weeds and flexing his fingers.

"You're half right," the Rain ninja told him. "But you're missing one important detail."

Sakura lowered her sword.

"You said to pretend you're an assassin," she responded, a bit nervously. "You said not to use _ninjutsu_, but you said nothingabout not using it yourselfAn assassin might come at us with _ninjutsu_ regardless of whether or not we're prepared to use it ourselves. So I waited to see if you planned on dropping the weapons at the last minute to use _ninjutsu _instead."

"Precisely," Shikyo agreed. Then he rounded on the two boys on the ground. "_Kenjutsu _Lesson One: do _not_ rush in." He jabbed an index finger eastward, in the general direction of the Aoite Road. "In Mizutou, you won't be able to tell who is a ninja and who is not. Even _with _the Sharingan."

Sasuke's scowl deepened.

"In my experience," Shikyo went on, "none of the killers has ever used the transformation technique when attempting a direct attack on their target. They may use _henge _to infiltrate the place where the target is located, but _Shinkuhana _requires _all _of a ninja's _chakra _to work, and thus the transformation technique can't be maintained at that point. These assassins look and dress like normal citizens, and they take measures to disguise themselves that include colored lenses over the eyes or dyed hair to conceal bloodline traits. Thus you will have no way of knowing whether the person you brush past in the hall at night intends to use the Crimson Blossom technique against you . . . or merely intends to slip a dagger between your ribs. When dealing with assassins in close quarters, no technique-_ninjutsu _or simple weaponry-may be ruled out."

"That's right!" Naruto exclaimed in his raspy voice, having finally regained his air. "Kakashi-_sensei _waited until the last minute to charge the man on the road."

"You remember that _now,_" Sakura scoffed, "now that you've been knocked on your ass. Geez, you never---" But she stopped short of ridiculing him, because shadows were pooling in the furrows of Sasuke's face, and she'd just realized that Naruto wasn't the only one who'd been defeated so easily. She didn't mind teasing Naruto, but Sasuke was another story.

'_He's been on edge lately,' _Sakura thought, prudently shutting her mouth and lowering the finger she'd been pointing at Naruto. '_I wonder if it's because of the Chuunin Exam.'_

Shikyo harbored no such patience for adolescent drama.

"Get up," he ordered the two boys. "Now that you've shown me what you _can't _do, it's time to show me what you _can _do. Pick up your _boken._"

Sasuke and Naruto scrambled to their feet, fishing their swords out of the long grass. Sakura stepped forward to join them. Shikyo made no move to retrieve his own weapons, but beckoned with one hand.

"Raise your swords," he bade them. "And take a deep breath. What you are about to endure is going to be very painful."

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

**The Country of Wind**

The boy walked alone down the narrow alleyway, carrying in his arms a large sack that bulged at odd angles. He moved with a slow and measured pace, eyes trained on the way ahead, utterly focused on the errand he was running. He felt a vague sort of satisfaction in completing a task of such importance-and satisfaction was the closest he'd ever come to happiness, which was why he'd elected himself to go on this particular mission.

Someone was following him, of course. He knew this from the soft scraping noise inside the gourd strapped across his back. The sand sensed an enemy approaching as clearly as if it had eyes that saw behind him. It began to stir.

'_No,' _he told it silently. _'Be still.' _

The steady crunch of his sandals in the dirt came to a halt. He stood utterly still in the middle of the alley, making no move to arm himself or to affect any sort of defensive posture. He was tired of being attacked, and-truth be told-he was also growing weary of killing them. How many of them had died senseless deaths attacking him? Ten? Twenty? He had lost count a week ago. These men were driven by a definite, organized purpose-of that he was sure. Whoever gave them orders them was sending them after him in deadly earnest. Attempts had been made on his life countless times before the advent of the Chuunin Exam in Konoha, but they had always occurred in the cities and towns that he passed through. These _shinobi _had pursued him across the desert itself, coming at him regardless of heat and sun and sand and wind and rock . . . which pretty much summed up everything contained in the Wind Country. One bold soul had even dared to cross the Dune Sea in the midst of the storm three days ago. That particular assassin had braved the elements with what seemed to be no concern whatsoever for his own survival, attacking his target amid the fury of the wilderness.

'_So,' _the boy thought, _'they're willing to die to see me dead.' _

He felt no real anger or sorrow as he mulled over this prospect, but what he _did _feel was a growing irritation because his mission was being interrupted.

The last one-the one who'd attacked him in the wilderness-now lay buried beneath the shifting sand, in pieces.

And now, standing alone in a deserted side-street, he didn't bother turning around. Whoever the assassin was would be making himself scarce in the shadows, or perhaps clinging spider-like to the stone walls that rose on either side of him, waiting to pounce. It hardly mattered; Gaara of the Sand had never needed to watch his back.

"Why are you following me?" he asked coldly, addressing the general darkness surrounding him. "Are you _my _enemy, or an enemy of the Sand?"

In the shadows behind him, someone landed softly in the dirt, and the sand in Gaara's gourd stirred restlessly. There was a moment's pause, in which Gaara didn't move and the man behind him didn't speak.

'_Be still,' _Gaara silently ordered the sand.

The stranger let out the soft, brisk exhalation of a man rising out of a crouch, and then answered in a woman's voice, "Neither, Gaara of the Sand. I'm Hanone Oujou of Konoha, captain of ANBU Squad Nine." The woman paused, but when Gaara still didn't turn around she added, "I've come to warn you."

Gaara smiled thinly.

"Really? Warn me of what?" He spoke in a flat, toneless way, clearly warning the woman that he wasn't stupid.

She caught his implication and hastily changed tactics.

"My squad was sent after you following the Chuunin Exam because we learned you were being hunted," she told him. "The Elders fear that the killers dispatched to find you are members of some new organization. We haven't yet put a name to it, or to its purpose, but it definitely wants you dead, so that was why our investigation required us to follow you."

Slowly, Gaara turned to face her. He made no immediate reply to her explanation, but stood there in silence, taking her measure with his cold, dark-rimmed eyes. She seemed young, and stood but a few inches taller than himself. Over her face she wore a pale mask carved in the vague semblance of a snake's head. The rest of her was cloaked in some kind of black bodysuit, over which she wore a gray cloak with the hood pulled low over her Konoha forehead protector.

"ANBU. . ." he murmured, eyes narrowing slightly as he tasted the word. "So. Konoha wants to protect _me_? How good of them. But where is your squad?"

He couldn't see the woman's facial expression, but her shoulders slumped a little.

"Dead," she admitted in a low voice. "We were careful but not careful enough. They drew us into battle with them here before you arrived. Because the killers are aware of Konoha's presence in this now, I felt it became necessary to warn you, because the protection we've been affording you will no longer be as effective. The assassins have begun hunting our investigative squads as well."

Gaara shrugged faintly.

"That's your problem. _I _have all the protection I need."

The woman nodded toward the street behind him.

"But what about your team? Unless we are gravelymistaken, you haven't come all this way alone, have you?"

A frown darkened Gaara's pale brow.

The woman noted it, and seemed to interpret it as a weakness she'd found in him.

"Allow me to accompany you on your return to your Village," she offered. "For your friends' sake, if not for yours."

The sand within his gourd suddenly roiled sharply, scraping harshly against its round inner walls. The woman heard it this time and tensed. Gaara eyed her narrowly. It was obvious that she knew his capability of killing, and that her superiors had warned her to be wary of him. If nothing else, the bodies strewn along the roads he'd traveled should have been enough of an indication.

"Is it so important that you protect us?" he asked her. "Why does Konoha order its policing force to guard ninja of another Village?"

The woman inclined her head, crossing one fist over her breast.

"Those are my orders," she replied, her voice sounding oddly muffled behind the mask. "It is not my duty to question their importance"

The sand shifted again in the gourd, sensing blood. Gaara realized she had dug the sharp nails of the fisted hand into her palm so hard she'd cut herself. He pretended not to notice, though the sand was growing more restless by the minute.

"Hanone Oujou, you may come with us," he told her calmly. "But only if you remove your mask. My sand shield doesn't seem to trust you, and while you hide your face I don't trust you either."

The woman hesitated for a few seconds, but then appeared to judge it wiser to go along with him. She unclenched her fist and pulled her hood back, reaching behind her head to loosen the mask's fastenings.

Watching her, Gaara pressed his lips together in a firm line. The sand in his gourd scratched angrily at the cork stoppering it inside, begging for release. This time, he made no effort to stop it.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

**Konoha**

"You can'tbe serious!"

"I'm afraid I don't understand your objections."

Jiraiya stood in front of a long table in Konoha's administration building, staring down one very bored-looking woman with a very large stack of paperwork in front of her.

"You're saying you're going to deny me a look at the records when a ninja's life is on the line?"

The woman blinked slowly, eyeing him in a rather droll fashion.

"Sir, thus far you've given me no proof of that," she told him. "All you've done is tromp in here, tracking mud across our wood floor, and ask me for classified information on this . . . this . . ."

"Uzumaki Naruto," Jiraiya prompted impatiently, folding his arms across his chest.

"Uzumaki, yes, well, I've told you---we don't just _give _classified information to any random civilian who wanders into this building."

Jiraiya's eye twitched.

"Random _civilian_? Young lady, don't you know who I _am_?"

The woman rubbed at her temple, with one ink-stained hand.

"No, but I sense you're about to expound on that."

Taking this as his cue, Jiraiya whipped out a scroll and tugged its fastenings apart with his teeth. Then he unrolled the entire thing with a single snap of his wrist, sending leathery paper sailing through the air. One enormous puff of smoke later, he was perched majestically atop an orange bullfrog roughly the size of a small horse. The woman behind the table blinked and recoiled in surprise, but quickly regained her composure as the smoke cleared.

"Oh, I see," she said, before the Sannin could open his mouth to proclaim his glory. "Jiraiya-_sama_ the Frog Hermit. You've returned to Konoha after all."

Jiraiya froze mid-pose, grinning down at her.

"You've heard of me, have you? Well, it _has _been a while since my last visit . . ."

The woman behind the table was beginning to look less bored and more put-out.

"Not long enough," she said flatly. "As I recall, you spent your lastvisit peeping outside the women's bath-houses."

"Why young lady!" Jiraiya crowed from atop the frog. "Are you accusing one of the three great Sannin of being some kind of pervert?" Even as he said this, he was using his high vantage point to look down her cleavage.

This time the woman lost her composure entirely, banging the flats of her palms against the table and scattering papers every which way.

"_Baka hentai! _I was _in _the bath house when some kid finally caught you at it!"

Jiraiya's grin vanished. The frog beneath him rolled its huge, bulbous eyes upward to look at him, and then vanished with a loud pop and yet another cloud of smoke.

"Hey! Stupid frog!" the Sannin bellowed as he landed in a crouch on the wood floor. "Don't run out on me like a coward!"

The woman, in the meantime, had moved out from behind the table and was currently gathering the upset documents from the floor. Giving up on the frog, Jiraiya turned toward her. Though her face was averted, he could practically seethe veins popping in her forehead. He sighed; this was no time to be worrying about his reputation, such as it was.

"All frivolities set aside, I seriously need to see that information," Jiraiya told her, bending to help retrieve the documents.

"No meansno," she snapped, standing up with a pile of papers under both arms.

Jiraiya handed her the files, looking up at her from a crouched position.

"Uzumaki Naruto's just a kid," he told her grimly. "But I have reason to believe someone may send assassins after him. If he's currently out on a mission, I would very much like to know whereTeam Seven, I believe."

At his mention of the team's number, the woman seemed somewhat startled. Then she sighed, gazing down at him as she packed the files back into an orderly stack.

"Regulations are regulations," she told him firmly. "But I will tell you this: I dohave the report on Team Seven's current mission. It seems like a dangerous one. I'm told Hatake Kakashi left with his Genin in the middle of the night, and that Konoha's Council of Elders was involved. Aside from that, all other information remains classified."

Jiraiya let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. It relieved him somewhat to hear that Naruto was actually _on _a mission and hadn't simply been trussed up and kidnapped in the night. But he frowned as he pushed himself to his feet. The Council involving itself with a mission wasn't standard procedure.

"I'm sorry, Sannin-_sama_," the woman told him, skirting around the table and reseating herself. She seemed more sympathetic now that she could see he was genuinely concerned about a kid.

"I understand," Jiraiya responded. He was looking down her cleavage again.

The woman waited for him to leave, but when he merely stood there staring she realized abruptly the location his eyes were directed toward.

"You---!" she fumed, bristling.

"Sorry, sorry," Jiraiya apologized with a grin, backing away and making placating motions with his hands.

The woman's eyes narrowed to slits, and she clapped her hands together, preparing to form a seal. Jiraiya didn't wait to see what seal; he practically fled the room.

Once he was safely one block away from the administration building, he pulled the file he'd filched out from beneath his maroon vest. When he was helping the woman retrieve the scattered papers he'd happened to notice that one of them was the report he wanted and proceeded to tuck it into his belt beneath his vest when she wasn't looking. He stared down at it now, wearing a satisfied smile. Once he returned to his room at the inn, he intended to make a thorough study of it.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

A gray shadow traversed the rooftops of Konoha, cloak fluttering ghost-like behind it as it went. Night had fallen, and the sky was blanketed with clouds, but the shadow moved as sure-footedly and as with as much certainty as if it were broad daylight. To the members of ANBU, the Village's rooftops were almost as familiar as the streets. A soft rain pattered on the shadow's hood as it finally reached its destination and slipped in through the open window in the Council Room.

"Ryotate-_sama_, I've returned with news," she said, sinking into a kneeling position before the Elder standing watch there. Since the investigation of the assassination cases had begun, ANBU had been working around the clock, and so had the Village Council.

"Who reports?" the older man asked, rising from his chair and moving closer to address her.

She raised her head, sliding aside her mask.

"Hanone Oujou of Squad Nine, Sir. My team sent me personally because the birds we sent as messengers mysteriously never seemed to reach you. We lost contact with half of the other squads as well. I can only assume they've gone on ahead of us because I didn't meet any of them on the return trip. As for my squad, we were delayed in Kazeya Town due to a sandstorm. It came sweeping across the desert without warning; we had no choice but to seek shelter until it passed. We were unable to follow Gaara to the city of Gairu."

The storms in the Wind Country could rip the flesh right off a man's bones.

Slowly, the Elder nodded.

"And where was the Sand boy last seen?"

The young woman's face darkened beneath the shadow of a frown.

"We lost sight of him in the desert. I believe he knows that we were following him."

"Ahh . . ." The Elder turned and began pacing the length of the room, hands clasped behind his back. "I'll read your report later. But first I want to hear your personal account. It troubles me that we've lost contact." His restless footsteps carried him to the window, where he leaned his elbows on the sill, gazing out into the rain. "It may be that the storm was the cause of the birds never reaching Konoha. Or it may not."

He lingered near the window for a while, lost in thought. Oujou stared at the cracks in the wood floor beneath her fist, thinking worriedly of her squad. She had abandoned them only with the utmost reluctance, braving the desert alone to return and report. She didn't like leaving the comrades under her command when one ANBU squad had already turned up dead.

"I want a new team assembled," the Elder said abruptly. "It seems a specialized force is needed to keep a clear watch on these assassins." He turned away from the window. "Send word to the Hyuuga."

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

**The Country of Wind**

As Hanone Oujou slid her mask aside, the sand burst forth from the gourd and flew toward her with breakneck speed. Gaara made no move to stop it, planting himself firmly in the middle of the alley and watching her with narrowed eyes. Her face registered surprise as she realized she was being attacked, but her swift reflexes saved her. _Chakra_ shot rapidly to her feet, and she sprang sideways, landing in a gravity-defying crouch on the side of the stone wall to her right. The sand shot past her left shoulder so swiftly that it scraped the fabric from her sleeve and some of the flesh beneath as well.

"What is the meaningof this?" she demanded angrily, clutching at her shoulder. "You---"

She was unable to finish whatever accusation she was about to fling at him, because the sand swerved abruptly mid-air and shot toward her again. This time she was ready for it, though, and melted backward into the shadows on the wall. The sand struck the wall so hard the stone cracked, but Gaara sensed that it had not damaged the woman in any way. With wide, sharp eyes he scanned the darkness pervading the alleyway. He could sense an odd energy emanating from her, and it was making his blood stir.

"Hiding yourself won't kill me," he called to the shadows. "Come. Show me what it was you were sent to do."

"I wasn't sent to kill you!" her disembodied voice insisted. Though it echoed through the alleyway, it seemed strangely muffled, as if she were speaking through the stones themselves.

Gaara made no reply to her attempt to defend herself, but merely stood where he was, waiting. The sand scraped along the walls, seeking out the body that accompanied the voice.

"I won't attack you," the young woman promised. "And I won't fight back. I can'tto do so would be to violate my orders."

Suddenly, she slid into view from a place nearer to him on the wall, and then leaped down with a somersault to land crouched in front of him. Then she rose to her feet, slowly and warily, holding one hand out before her as if to hold him at bay.

"Regardless of the risk, a mission should not be compromised," she said. "And I _will _protect you even if it costs my life to convince you of that."

Briefly, Gaara's eyes widened as he recalled a Konoha ninja who had once said something very similar. The sand scraping along the walls began reaching toward the young woman from behind with tendril-like fingers, moving slowly and hesitantly because its master was distracted. But Gaara was not to be distracted for long. The words spoken by that Konoha ninja resonated strongly in his memory . . .

. . . but this young woman was _not_ from Konoha.

"Tell me," Gaara said coldly, taking one step toward her. "What is it that your organization wants? Blood money? Or do you think my death would somehow reveal to you the secret of the demon sealed within me?"

She shook her head vehemently.

"You should tell me," Gaara continued, taking another step forward. "At least it would give your death some meaning."

Now the gray-cloaked _shinobi _became aware of the sand drifting through the air around her, the tendrils beginning to tighten their orbit around her body.

"No!" she protested angrily. "You _must _trust me! I am Hanone Oujou, Rank Chuunin, captain to ANBU's Squad Nine, on the orders of the Village Council themselves to---"

Gaara tilted his head to one side, peering at the ANBU mask now rotated to rest against the side of her head.

"You are not one of the ANBU," he said softly. "Before I took part in the Chuunin Exam, I was briefed on what to expect from Konoha's guardians. On missions, in front of outsiders, _they do not remove their masks._"

The young woman's eyes widened, and her jaw clenched. Calmly, Gaara tossed the sack he'd been carrying behind him and to the side, and then used his newly-freed hands to form a seal before it even hit the ground.

"_Desert Coffin,_" Gaara said quietly.

The sand swirling around the woman abruptly folded in on itself, closing in around her body with crushing force. Gaara's hand tightened into a fist, and the death-trap clenched inward.

Yet there was no spurt of blood, and no crunch of bone. There was only a splash of liquid, jetting out between the clumps of sand.

'_A Water Clone?' _Gaara mused. _'In the desert, no less . . .'_

He advanced another step forward as the sand exploded and fell, staring at the falling liquid. The woman was gone.

'_She sank down into the shadows again,' _Gaara thought, wearing a faint, dark smile. If he was going to have to kill again, at least this one was proving to be interesting.

The sound of soft, rapid footsteps made him turn his head upward. The woman was running swiftly up the wall, clearly intending to escape via the rooftops. The instant her movements caught Gaara's attention, the sand she had previously escaped now rose upward along the wall after her. Its velocity was now reduced, however, by the liquid her clone had showered it with, making it heavier and less aerodynamic. Watching it give chase, Gaara thought for a moment that she might actually outrun it. The walls here were nearly four stories high, but if she were to reach the top and change the direction of her flight by ninety degrees, the sand would not be able to maneuver fast enough to prevent her from sprinting the straight shot across the town's roofs. She would be running directly into the sandstorm raging overhead, of course, but she had more of a chance of surviving that than she did _his_ particular breed of sand.

She never reached the top. The sand surged upward mightily, swallowing her from feet to head. Again Gaara clenched his fist, and again the sand clenched inward. There were no shadows for her to melt into this time; the sand had thoroughly encased her.

And again, only liquid spurted out when the Desert Coffin closed.

Gaara's eyes widened.

'_A decoy,' _he realized, watching the liquid shower earthward. _'That time it wasn't even a replacement---she deliberately used the clone to distract me . . .'_

In the split-second that this realization hit him, something sharp jabbed him in the back of the neck.

'_Kunai?' _he thought in surprise as the sharp point pierced through the armor of sand that he wore like a second skin. _'No . . . a needle.'_

At close range, even his sand armor had vulnerabilities. The back of the neck was one of them. His enemy had arisen behind him from his own shadow, and her needle had caught him off-guard. Liquid flame radiated outward into his shoulders and head from where the point had pierced the flesh at the base of his skull.

'_Paralyzing poison,' _he thought. The demon _chakra _inside him would eventually work to counteract it, but it would be a while before he would be able to move properly.

Behind him he heard a sharp, metallic click, and suddenly everything around him went up in a rush of flames. His own clothes ignited as if he were a match someone had just struck alight. Startled, Gaara tipped his head backward to avoid the abrupt rush of flames jetting upward past his face from the front of the robes he wore over his shirt. Now he understood that the woman's clones had been formed from some kind of igniting liquid, for the purpose of spattering him with it. The gourd strapped across his back was torn from him and cast aside, and the assassin pressed herself against him from behind, locking one arm around his throat.

By this time the sand that had chased the decoy upward came seething down the wall, making straight for Gaara's attacker. It bore down upon the woman, peeling away at her exposed flesh and scraping away the layers of clothing to expose the rest. The instant the flames touched it, the sand ignited as well, for it was still carried with it the droplets from the second exploded decoy. Gaara wasn't being burned at all, for his sand armor protected his skin from the fire, but the heat was becoming distinctly uncomfortable. Sand and smoke roiled around them, gritty and acrid against his vulnerable eyes and nostrils. Gaara understood that the threat of smoke inhalation was not something to which he was invulnerable, and noted with growing concern that the paralysis was not wearing off as swiftly as he had anticipated.

The woman's choke-hold apparently wasn't meant to strangle him, but to buy her time. Gaara felt her frantic breath at his ear, rasping from the smoke and guttural with blood from what the sand was doing to the flesh of her face. Because she was clinging to him so tightly he could not use the Desert Coffin to stop her, and it seemed that even the roiling sand flaying the flesh from her bones was not enough to deter her.

Her words from before echoed in his ears: "_Regardless of the risk, a mission must not be compromised." _

'_That is an assassin's way,' _he thought detachedly, while his brain fought for oxygen. _'To kill even unto death.' _It was something he understood; something he had always known by instinct. Or perhaps . . . perhaps it was merely something that the demon inside him had always known; an instinct not his own but essentially become his own . . .

Through the haze of grit he could see that the woman was forming what looked to be a very complex seal using only one hand. Tattered flesh hung from her arm along with the rags of her sleeves, blowing with the sand's flow and spraying everything crimson. But her hand . . . her hand was . . .

'_That seal,' _Gaara thought, attempting to put up a struggle against the drug and the arm locked around his neck. _'That seal is . . . it's not natural . . .' _His struggle only succeeded in making both of them stumble forward a pace.

An unnatural chill pervaded the air between them, intensifying rapidly as she completed another part of the seal. It was unlike any cold he had felt before; so icy it burned. It was like death become air. It turned his blood to ice in his veins, raising the short red hairs on the back of his neck.

'_What is this?' _Gaara thought. Every instinct for self-preservation was now screaming for him to kill her before she could complete the strange _jutsu_.

Her right hand finished the seal at last, and then retracted from view. Watching her out of the corner of his eye, Gaara saw that she was dipping the fingers of that hand in her own blood, which now ran freely down the mess that had once been her face.

The muscles in his limbs went tense and rigid, and instinct took over. Gathering itself inward and risking the exposure of his flesh, the sand armor that covered his shoulder reshaped itself into a point and jabbed upward. Gaara let out a short, choked gasp as the flames on his clothes licked across his bared shoulder, but the wound was well worth the pain. The blade of sand caught his attacker through the chin, skewering her through the upper trachea and stabbing through the harder tissue beyond before passing into her brain.

Even at this instant of her death, the assassin's _jutsu _hand flailed upward, striking Gaara across the cheek and brow.

There swept over him a wave of _chakra _so icy he imagined she was pulling him down into the dark underworld after her. Her left arm loosened and slid away from his throat, and the sand-blade retracted back onto his arm as the cloud of sand finally tore her off of him.

Free of her weight but also free of her support, Gaara sank to his knees in the sooty dirt, coughing and shedding his outer robes to beat the flames from them against the ground. Behind him, over the crackle of the dying flames, he heard the sickening crunch of bone and the softer, disintegration of the pulpier organs. The sand had acted of its own accord, exacting vengeance on his attacker for the death she had so nearly dealt him.

There had been death in her touch. Gaara knew it as surely as he felt the movements of the sand. For that brief instant after dipping her fingers in her own blood, the assassin had held death in her hand. She had been reaching for some vulnerable part of him, seeking a wider opening in his sand armor than the one her needle had made in the back of his neck. At the last, she had been reaching for his widened eye-one of the few places on his body where the shield did not cover him. Had her hand not fallen short, Gaara sensed that he would have been swallowed by that yawning, dark void that had opened between them.

He, Gaara of the Sand, the untouchable Gaara, would have been felled by a mere _touch_.

Slowly, shakily, he pushed himself to his feet and turned to look at what remained of the assassin's body. Though somewhat dizzy from the poison, he stepped closer to the mess, silently commanding the sand to return. It rose from the scattered remains like a cloud of flies, circling overhead a bit to purge itself of the flame-liquid. Then it flowed past its master, returning at last to the gourd, which-upon being cast aside by the assassin-had rolled up against the wall some ten feet away.

By this time Gaara was aware of the shouts of the townspeople echoing through the dark streets. The alley was near Kazeya Town's outer wall, and also in a portion of the settlement that had been abandoned. However, someone traversing one of the cross-streets had inevitably caught sight of the flames and raised an alarm. Gaara fully intended to flee the scene as quickly as possible, as he had done following the previous attempts on his life, but this time the damage done to him did not permit the necessary haste. The freedom of movement had returned to his limbs completely, but his head was reeling from the last effects of the drug and the smoke he'd inhaled, and his shoulder stung from the burn. He scooped up the tattered, charred remains of his outer robes and then re-stoppered the gourd. As he slung it over his back with one hand, he stooped to reach for the sack that he had been carrying earlier, which by some miracle had escaped with very little damage.

Then he heard footsteps, and a strong hand clamped down on his left shoulder. He tensed, straightening and whirling about so fast that he nearly lost his balance.

"Easy, boy," a man's voice said.

Gaara found himself face to face with what appeared to be two shopkeepers carrying lanterns. One of them was young; roughly Gaara's age. The other was elderly, with streaks of gray in his beard and food stains on his apron. It was the older man who had laid a hand on the Sand ninja's shoulder.

"I---" Gaara opened his mouth to lie, but the words didn't come easily. His throat had gone bone-dry. "It was---" He did not want to kill these men. He did _not. _Nausea surged through him at the thought.

"A bomb," the young shopkeeper spoke up, eyeing the charred remains lying strewn about the alley.

The shopkeeper's gaze flickered downward to Gaara's hands, and then back up to the boy's face.

"Are you all right, boy?" he asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

It was then that Gaara realized he was still clutching the sack, and that this was the man who had sold it to him earlier. For such a petty reason, the shopkeepers had naturally assumed that Gaara was the victim.

"A bomb," Gaara repeated, finding his tongue at last. "I'm under attack. I'm going to my village, to seek protection." For good measure, he clasped the sack more tightly against him-a gesture he sensed would enhance the lie.

The shopkeeper stepped back from the Sand ninja in a hurry, some of the sympathy evaporating from his face.

"You're a Sand ninja, aren't you?" he asked. "Well, it's best you move on from this town soon if this sort of trouble is following you."

Then he nodded sharply to the younger man, and the two fell into a discussion about what to do with the remains. Sensing that any further explanation on his part would be unwelcome, Gaara set off down the streets again with his sack and his gourd. He had intended to leave Kazeya Town as soon as the storm let up, anyway. But for now, there was still a mission to complete.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

Twenty minutes later, Gaara arrived at his destination. He had chosen to stay in an abandoned building near the outskirts of town on purpose, anticipating trouble and wanting to avoid mainstream attention. As he swung open the rusty door to the room, he called, "Temari! Kankurou! The storm is cleared," before crossing the threshold. It was the password they had all agreed upon, signaling that whoever had left the group was returning safely.

His comrades sat on the cold stone floor, both of them almost as coated with dust as their surroundings. Kankurou was attempting to polish the wood finish of his puppet. Temari was attempting to comb the tangles from her fluffy blond hair by running her fingers through it. Both of them looked very tired. Gaara felt somewhat guilty seeing them thus; it was his fault that they were having to live like this while they traveled.

"Gaara, what happened?" Kankurou asked, looking up from his work and taking in Gaara's bloody, disheveled appearance in a glance.

Gaara held up the sack he'd been carrying. It was slightly singed on one side, and the steamed dumplings inside were cold, but everything was still intact.

"Mission complete," he informed them.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

**The Aoite Road; Southeast of Konoha**

"_OOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!"_

"Shut up, moron. I've got blood blisters on my hands and you don't hear _me _whining."

The complaint was Naruto's; the retort Sasuke's. As background noise to this sudden bout of bickering, there came the steady _swish-swishing _of _boken _chopping downward through the air. Shikyo, having immediately assessed Team Seven's _kenjutsu _potential with ill-concealed disgust, had set them all practicing the same striking motions for the remainder of the day. Night had fallen now, but the Rain ninja-observing their movements with intent skepticism-had decreed that they were to keep repeating the exercises until Kakashi awoke and rejoined them.

Naruto shot a glare Shikyo's way, but the man ignored it. Like Kakashi, the Rain ninja seemed impervious to their youthful resentment, but recalling how easily Shikyo had thrown both himself and Sasuke at once Naruto judged it best not to revolt. Open rebellion, he sensed, would earn him far worse than a mere sword-hilt in the gut.

"He wasn't kidding when he said 'pain'," Sakura muttered under her breath. She seemed to be taking quite naturally to the exercise, however. Sweat streamed down her face, but the expression she wore was one of the utmost determination. Though she hadn't gloated at all, her two comrades sensed that she was pleased with herself for being the only one Shikyo had praised. If nothing else, this served to make their sour moods sourer.

And to make matters worse, Naruto was bored. Even _Naruto_ knew that when he was bored trouble was inevitable.

He wasn't about to start anything, but of course there were always ways of getting Sasuketo start something . . .

A slow grin spread across his face. Sakura noticed it and blanched.

"Uh . . ." she began, but Operation Boredom Cure was already beginning.

"Shikyo-_sensei_, I have to take a leak," Naruto called, lowering his _boken _and turning toward the Rain ninja, who was seated cross-legged on the terrace at the garden's edge.

The blue-robed _shinobi _rose quietly to his feet, motioning for Naruto to follow him into the inn. Sasuke and Sakura hung back, as Naruto had anticipated they would.

"You guys have to come too," Naruto told them, smirking. "We _always _have to stay with one of the Jounin, right?"

Just as Shikyo stepped inside the sliding door and turned the corner leading into the hallway, Naruto formed a quick seal, and abruptly there were three extra Naruto's standing in the garden. The Genin proceeded to form another seal, muttering _"Henge," _and then two of the Naruto's became Sasuke and Sakura.

The real Sasuke and Sakura eyed Naruto with great misgivings as the three duplicates went trotting after Shikyo. Naruto grinned at them, tossing his _boken _into the grass.

"Well, you've tricked him" Sakura finally managed to say, placing her hands on her hips in irritation. "Just what are we supposed to do now? Don't you think we're going to be in a crap-load of trouble when we're caught?"

Naruto shrugged.

"Probably. But for now, we hide. That way when he comes back we've got my Shadow Clones to swing those stupid sticks _for _us."

Sakura stared at him.

"_That _. . . is the _dumbest _idea I've ever heard," she declared.

But Naruto noted with satisfaction that she was making no move to hurry after Shikyo and clear things up.

"I'm going to hide," he informed them. "If you rat on me, I'll have the other me's use you for _kunai _target practice."

He spun on his heel with exaggerated bravado, heading for the terrace at the garden's opposite end.

He stopped short when he felt Sasuke's _boken _poke him between the shoulder blades.

"You're going to stop this and you're going to stop this _now._" Sasuke's voice was cold enough to freeze hell.

Naruto barely managed to suppress a cackle of glee. Things were about to get interesting.

"He's right, Naruto," Sakura chimed in. "Disobeying our superiors here is dangerous."

Naruto turned around slowly, for dramatic effect.

"So you're gonna _fight _me, is that it?" he drawled, waggling his eyebrows at Sasuke. "Sasuke-_chan _with his leetle stick? Going to swordfight me if I don't go take a leak like a good boy?"

This, of course, was precisely what Naruto wanted. Sasuke's gloomy demeanor since the previous day had been getting on his nerves, and if anything the yellow-haired Genin felt a good swordfight would snap him out of it. It seemed he was about to get his wish; Sasuke looked appropriately incensed, gripping the _boken's _hilt so tightly his hands turned white at the knuckles.

"Pick up your sword," he told Naruto between clenched teeth.

Grinning fiercely, Naruto fished his _boken _out of the weeds.

"Stop it. Both of you!" Sakura snapped. "This is stupid. I'm going to tell Shikyo-_sensei._"

"Okay," Naruto replied, shooting her a grin. "We may have killed each other off by the time you get back, of course . . ."

Again Sakura blanched, her gaze traveling back and forth from one boy to the other. Then, unexpectedly, she stooped down and lifted both of Shikyo's practice swords from the ground. With sudden, lightning speed, she brought both blades up to bear, pointing them at either boy with the tips just under their chins.

"S-stop it now!" she demanded. "I won't let you do this!"

Naruto took one look at her dual-sword stance and burst out laughing. Staring at her pale-faced, determined expression, Sasuke suddenly let out a snort of disgust, flinging down his _boken. _

"Forget it," he snapped. "This is stupid."

"Oh, by all means, continue."

All three Genin jumped, whirling around to face the owner of this new voice.

Kakashi was sitting on the inn's low roof, his long legs dangling over the edge as he watched them.

"Don't look so surprised," he told them in response to their shocked faces. "I knew you'd try to pull something stupid if I left you alone for too long. Shikyo's a sharp man, but he doesn't know you three like I do." He paused, resting his hands on his thighs, and then added thoughtfully, "But I daresay this looks interesting. Do continue."

The three Genin exchanged bemused glances, and then, slowly, Sasuke bent to retrieve his sword. Atop the roof, Kakashi leaned forward.

"All right, you lot," he said lightly. "_Hajime._"

**END OF CHAPTER 3**

_Yamisui: I apologize for the length of this, but I just couldn't see any way of breaking it up without making it overly choppy. The Gaara side-story almost seems irrelevant at this point, but if you've any power of recollection at all you've noticed that the technique the assassin just used against him was Shinkuhana. And that he survived, even though his sand techniques use a great deal of chakra, which is just as vulnerable to the attack as flesh. This is not an error on my part. There definitely is a reason . . . to be revealed at a later date. _

_In general, there has been much debate as to what can and can't kill Gaara of the Sand. It was difficult trying to figure out a way for the assassin to come at him effectively when he's so darn invulnerable. However, while grasping at straws, I recalled when Naruto fought him, and that Gaara reveals (or thinks, at any rate) that there are places of vulnerability in his sand armor, even when he's half-transformed into demon-shape. Thus I figured that those vulnerabilities would be even more pronounced when he was in human-shape. As someone with a masters in physics and two fluid dynamics courses under my belt, I can safely assert that where a blunt blow like a punch might not penetrate hard-packed sand, a hard enough jab with an object of small radius will penetrate it. Hence the plausibility of the assassin's needle piercing the vulnerable spot in Gaara's sand armor. The only other technique I could see being affective was smoke, because as far as I know Gaara doesn't have sand protecting his lungs. _


	4. The Crossing of Swords and Seas

_Author's Notes of Luv: I'm sure you were all hoping to see our beloved Team Seven boken the crap out of each other in the previous chapter; I'm sorry if the title was misleading. I had originally intended to put that in at the end, but then it occurred to me that anything over 25 pages was a bit long for a chapter, so I ended before that part. So anyway, here's some boken-nihilation to compensate for that. _

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**o o Chapter 4: The Crossing of Swords and Seas o o**

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

At first the three Genin merely stared at one another, each one's gaze darting between his or her two potential opponents. Then Sasuke and Naruto locked eyes with each other, and the previous tense mood returned. A slow grin spread across Naruto's face.

"Hee hee," he chuckled ominously.

Sasuke was smiling, too, although it was a smile that implied he was feeling inclined to mix a little murder in with his training.

The two boys rushed at each other, each one leveling his _boken _at the other's chest.

At that moment Shikyo burst into the courtyard, flinging aside the sliding doors with a loud _bang. _In a flash he had leaped off the wooden terrace and into the long grass, positioning himself between the two charging Genin and stopping their _boken _with either hand. He surveyed the area with sharp blue eyes, taking stock of the situation, and then his gaze turned upward as he noticed Kakashi seated on the roof.

"Kakashi-_san_!" he called out. "They have---"

"Oh, I know," Kakashi interrupted, vaguely gesturing the matter aside. "But they're about to beat each other senseless. Come watch."

Wearing an expression of acute disapproval, the Rain ninja cleared the space between ground and rooftop in one bound. He seated himself cross-legged beside the white-haired Jounin, folding his arms across his chest and looking displeased.

"This will _not _help their training," he remarked, frowning down at the Genin on the grass below. "At any rate they require discipline . . ."

"Well, then let's make this even more fun," Kakashi suggested, raising one hand to his chin. His three subordinates peered up at him with great misgivings; there was a familiar ominous gleam in one eye, very much like one he'd worn at the end of the bell test he'd once given them. "How about . . . The last one standing gets to go to bed. The other two get to keep practicing _boken _exercises with meuntil you either pass out or I get bored." He paused, producing the sequel edition of _Icha Icha Paradise _from a pocket in his vest. "And _believe _me," he added, in sepulchral tones, "I will _not _be bored."

His three students gaped up at him in abject horror. Shikyo stared down at the book in the Jounin's hand with one eyebrow raised; Kakashi's affinity for novels of questionable nature had obviously _not _been mentioned in the dossiers.

'_He's---he's using this to punish us!' _Sakura thought, shutting her mouth and swallowing hard.

Sasuke's jaw clenched, as did his hands around the hilt of his _boken. _Naruto, in the meantime, pointed a finger up at Kakashi as realization hit him.

"_Ero-sennin's _book just came out!" he exclaimed loudly. "All hell broke loose in Konoha, and he _still_ managed to publish that dirty stuff?"

" '_Ero-sennin'?_" Kakashi murmured, scratching his head in bemusement.

In the garden below, Naruto's two fellow Genin had no idea what he was hollering about, and neither did they care. Slowly, their heads swiveled his way, their eyes full of Death.

'_That Naruto . . .' _Sasuke thought darkly. _'This is . . .'_

'_His fault . . .' _Sakura finished the thought.

Naruto was lying prone on the ground before he even knew what hit him. It didn't take him long to figure out, however, because no sooner did he manage to roll over onto his back to see what had befallen him than his teammates moved in for the kill. Sasuke's first blow had caught him directly in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him. Sakura's had caught him from behind, jabbing the vulnerable soft spot at the base of his skull and temporarily causing his vision to go dark.

"He'still moving!" Sakura exclaimed, jabbing the downed Genin in the gut with the tip of her _boken. _"Just pass out already!"

"Ow!" Naruto wheezed, rolling swiftly to one side just in time to avoid being pummeled in the head by Sasuke's blade stabbing downward. The dark-haired Genin's blow was so forceful that the weapon sank a good two inches into the damp earth beside its target.

Naruto rolled and sprang onto his feet, shaking his head to clear the stars currently orbiting it. Fortunately, his hand still maintained a death-grip on his _boken, _because by instinct alone he managed to raise it in time to block another blow from Sakura, aimed for his stomach. As Sasuke suddenly lunged toward him from behind, Naruto aimed a vicious kick in his direction, which Sasuke arrested with one hand just in the nick of time. The Sharingan, now wheeling red in Sasuke's eyes, had given him the foresight needed to stop Naruto's foot from connecting with his mid-section.

'_That's right,' _Sasuke thought, clenching his teeth. _'Kakashi never told us no taijutsu . . .'_

With his left hand he chopped downward with his _boken, _aiming for the nerve in the back of Naruto's knee which, if struck properly, would cause Naruto's entire right leg to go completely numb and useless. The blow connected. However, at the same time Naruto ducked into an awkward sort of somersault, planting one hand on the ground and arcing his _boken _around in a circle aimed for Sasuke's ankles. With lightning speed, Sasuke pushed off from the ground, avoiding the blow. He was still clutching Naruto's foot, so that he dragged Naruto with him. A good ten feet up in the air, Sasuke flipped the practice sword in his hand so that his fist gripped its hilt while its wooden blade pointed earthward. As Naruto attempted to somersault mid-air to bring himself upright, Sasuke stabbed downward.

The blow caught Naruto directly in the throat. His jaw clicked shut and his head snapped back with the force of it. Together they plummeted toward the earth. Just before they hit the ground, Sasuke stamped downward, planting both feet on Naruto's middle and slamming the Genin into the grass. It was a downsized variation of his formidable "Lion Combo." He landed in a crouch atop his comrade, blade poised above Naruto's face in case Naruto had any fight left in him. But Naruto was quite finished, lying passed out and blank-eyed amid the damp grass, with spittle trailing from one corner of his mouth.

Wearing a faint smirk, Sasuke allowed the Sharingan to fade from his eyes. Then he remembered Sakura, and rose to his feet again. She stood not five feet behind him, arms dangling at her sides. She still held her _boken, _but as he turned to face her Sasuke saw her grip on the two hilts loosen so much that he thought she might drop them.

"Heh," he snorted, relaxing his stance. "Don't think I'm going to take it easy on you because you're a girl."

Sakura started slightly, her eyes widening. She was still reeling from the recent strike of realization: by aiding Sasuke in dispatching Naruto, she had precluded the possibility that she and Sasuke would have to fight. And she didn't even have the nerve to land a _kiss _on Sasuke's face, let alone a blow

She didn't drop the _boken._

But neither of them moved.

"_Oi,_ you two." On the roof, Kakashi was leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "A staring match does _not _count as sparring."

Sasuke's pale face hardened into a look of grim determination. Nervously, Sakura tightened her grip on the _boken_, hands turning white at the knuckles.

'_He's . . . he's seriously going to . . .'_

"I am _not_ spending the night being punished alongside _that moron_," Sasuke informed her in a low voice.

Sakura shut her gaping mouth, sinking into a defensive stance. She could see clearly that there was no way out of this. Sasuke lifted his practice sword and turned it sideways, clearly taking aim for what he felt would be a swift end to the match. His concentration was now focused solely on her.

It was a grave error; he never sensed the blow coming.

_That moron's _blade rammed into a pressure point between his shoulder blades-one which temporarily caused the lungs to freeze. Yet the part of Sasuke's brain driven by instinct compelled him to complete his attack. Even as Naruto's blow buffeted him to his knees, he managed to lunge forward with superhuman speed, striking low at Sakura with the _boken _still clutched in his hand.

However, instead of striking the inside of her ankle and toppling her to the ground, the flat of his blade only struck her slantwise across the shins. This caused her to gasp with pain and to stumble backward, beyond reach of any further assault. Of course, at this point the chance of him launching any further assault was quite slim. It was rapidly becoming difficult to breathe, and his vision was going hazy. Behind him, Naruto yelled, "Hey!"---presumably because Sasuke had hit Sakura-and suddenly he found himself planted prone on the ground with a mouthful of grass. Mouthing a curse, Sasuke spat out the grass, attempting to throw off the weight pressing him down.

'_What the---?' _he thought, but thoughts were beginning to flow disconnectedly through his brain.

Then there came a loud _crack, _and a sudden jolt above him. Something landed hard across his back, forcing his head down into the weeds again. And then . . . silence.

Sensing that no further blows were coming his way, Sasuke turned his focus inward to his lungs, fighting the lingering effects of Naruto's pressure-point strike. Then, just as the stars were beginning to fade from his vision and the strength began returning to his limbs, he heard Sakura's voice close by.

"Uh . . . are you alright, Sasuke-_kun_?"

Sasuke blinked away the last of the stars, straining to lift his head. Sakura was kneeling in front of him, peering down at him in concern. She had cast her _boken _aside, apparently the better to wring her hands in worry.

"Yeah," he grunted irritably, trying to sit up. Yet his body felt strangely heavy, as if a great weight were keeping him pinned to the ground.

Then he heard a familiar noise behind him.

"_Owwwwwww . . ._"

"Get _off _me, dumbass!" Sasuke snapped, abruptly losing patience with the dead weight across his back. Wrenching his shoulders to the right, he managed to roll onto his side, dumping Naruto onto the ground. Naruto lay where he'd fallen, apparently stillseeing stars from the blow Sakura had dealt him after he'd struck Sasuke down.

Up on the roof, Shikyo averted his gaze in disgust.

"You should know, Kakashi-_san_," he said in a low voice, "that had it been _my _choice I would have brought you alone, and left these _children _at home. It's a sign of sheer obedience to my lord that I've respected his adamant wish and brought your team as well."

Kakashi, who was watching the proceedings in the courtyard below with folded arms, merely frowned and offered no reply. Shikyo sighed, running a hand across his brow, displaying signs of weariness for the first time along the journey.

"They're skilled at long-range combat and move well in difficult terrain," he conceded, "especially the Uchiha boy. But they lack the disciplinefor what we'll be facing. The girl's the only one who seems to have any common sense," he added, nodding toward Sakura below. "She waited for the other two to beat each other down before making her move."

Kakashi finally spared him a glance.

"They're stupid," he agreed calmly, unfolding his arms. "But they're also full of surprises."

Shaking his head, the Rain ninja leaped down from the roof, landing easily in the courtyard. His sandals squeaked in the wet grass as he rose to his feet.

"I _read _the dossiers," he told Kakashi without turning around. "I know what they're capable of. But Mizutou has its own surprises. The Mist Ninja are . . ." He broke off, seeming unsure of how to word it. Finally, he gave up and shook his head again, looking up at the Leaf Jounin on the roof. "I hope you understand the delicacy of the situation."

Kakashi nodded slowly, his one visible eye unreadable as he stared thoughtfully at the man below him.

"I think I understand quite well," he murmured.

When it became apparent that this was all Kakashi had to say, Shikyo turned and headed across the courtyard toward the opposite terrace.

"I'm tired, Kakashi-_san_," he called sharply. "I'm going to bed. I leave them to you."

Kakashi watched him go in silence, but his uncovered eye narrowed, and beneath his mask he wore a frown.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

**The Hidden Village of Sound**

Kabuto walked briskly through the narrow, walled streets that led to his master's headquarters. Behind him, the four Akatsuki members who had elected to enter the Village moved with purposeful stride, swift and silent as ghosts. They appeared to be taking no interest in the village itself, for which Kabuto was somewhat grateful, but he could feel their eyes boring into the back of his skull, and the feeling raised the short hairs on the back of his neck. When the Sound Village was formed, Akatsuki had displayed no real interest in it, but he sensed that this was only because they didn't perceive any of its denizens as a threat. He supposed that they _did_ perceive Orochimaru as a threat, but the news of the Sannin's injured arms had no doubt reached their ears swiftly and assuaged any concern they might have had.

Walking ahead of them, Kabuto smiled thinly. If they thought his master helpless because his hands had been rendered unable to perform seals, then that was for the best. Orochimaru's immortality _jutsu _did _not_ require the Sannin to perform hand-seals _himself._ Kabuto knew that his master was merely waiting to change bodies once he had acquired the Uchiha boy. And if Akatsuki remained unaware of this, then that was also for the best.

'_Let them see him wounded here. Let them think his only ambition lies in revenge on Konoha . . .'_

Some of the Sound residents crept out onto their balconies to watch the silent procession below. The village had no buildings over two stories tall; Orochimaru had purposefully constructed it to make it difficult to locate. Entrenched deep in the forest, away from all public roads and civilian establishments, it was "hidden" in the fullest sense.

Wordlessly, Kabuto led the four behind him down a long, shadowed corridor that sloped into a hall beneath the earth, like a dugout. Inside the walls were stone and sunless, and the way slanted steeper still into a flight of stairs leading down to his master's chambers. At the end of another long hall, Kabuto opened a door and held it open as the four Akatsuki members filed past. None of them spared him a glance; their eyes were now trained upon the Sannin inside.

Orochimaru sat at the head of a long table with his useless arms resting in his lap. The scroll that he'd been studying had already been shoved clumsily to one side. There was a small, round lantern hanging from the ceiling, through which a soft red glow spilled down onto the table's dark wood, and the two corners of the room behind him harbored low tables with braziers burning atop them. Beside the braziers there were bowls of hot ash, in which sticks of incense smoked gently, lending a faint tang to the air. Other than these, there was no light in the room. Kabuto knew his master preferred the shadows because his afflicted arms pained him, and also because the darkness hid from his four visitors the sweat beaded on his pale brow. Even if the Sannin's powerlessness was a temporary deceit, Orochimaru in his hubris abhorred displaying weakness in front of his enemies.

"Four I see, when nine were expected," Orochimaru said, a bit sharply. He had received word from his network of spies days ago that five Akatsuki were within close range of the Sound Village. Suspecting that they might be coming to see him, he had ordered Kabuto to meet them should they approach the gates.

"Four of us stayed outside the Village walls to investigate. The ninth was killed, yeah," one of the remaining four answered softly. "We can't let this slide, yeah."

None of them deigned to move toward chairs or table, evidently preferring to stand. There was a definitive hostile air about them, so thick it was almost tangible.

"What is it you want from me?" Orochimaru asked in a smoother tone, leaning back in his chair.

Kabuto took his seat in a far corner of the room, where he could observe the faces of all present.

"We will make this short and clear," another of the four answered, "so that there will be no misunderstanding. The organization has become aware of recent events that suggest an Assassins' Ring has been formed." A pause. "Normally, we would not pay heed to such matters, but the Ring's activities seem widespread. There is a heavy presence in the Water Country, and possibly in the Fire Country as well. There is even a . . . _tenuous _presence in the Country of Wind. But that is a special case-there, they seem to be pursuing only one target. A trio of Sand brats . . ."

Orochimaru's pale brow furrowed.

"What involvement I hadwith the Sand is over," he murmured. "I have no hand in this, and I have nothing to say on this matter."

The first Akatsuki member to speak stirred restlessly, flexing her fingers.

"We've seen firsthand, yeah, what methods they use. Not bad, yeah. It's the _Shinkuhana jutsu._"

One corner of Orochimaru's mouth twisted upward into a crooked smile.

"I know of it," he told them. "The 'technique that kills inevitably'---target _and _assassin. But why do you suggest myinvolvement in this?"

"The Crimson Blossom technique was developed by the Fourth Mizukage in the Water Country," the second Akatsuki member responded levelly. "Soon after, it became forbidden there, for reasons known only to the privileged few in the Mist Village. But there have been . . . instancesof its use since then. And now there are _many _instances." Another pause. "The technique is rare---extremely so. It takes a supremely expert amount of _chakra _control to wield it . . . And the fact does not escape us that there are renegade Mist _shinobi _under your command."

Orochimaru snorted faintly, a lock of dark, lanky hair falling forward over one cold eye.

"I take in the trash that comes to my doorstep in greed," he replied. "The unpolished Genin; the criminal Jounin---all unprivileged and weak until I take the scrap metal that they are and forge from them a newer, stronger blade. I don't take in those stupid enough to grow in power and then _waste_ it by dying to kill someone." He tilted his head thoughtfully, causing his lanky hair to lend further shadow to his eyes. "Pawns I use as I see fit, but there's no one I fear to the extent that I would waste a fine blade to silence them."

Forgotten in his corner, Kabuto's sharp gaze flickered.

'_Of course he deliberately neglects to mention Sasuke,' _he thought wryly to himself. _'That is one fine pawn he would willingly sacrifice. After all, it was his lust for the Sharingan bloodline limit that made these men his enemies . . .' _Kabuto's smile faded.

The first Akatsuki member stepped forward, curving the fingers of one hand over the back of one of the chairs. The lantern's light reflecting off the table illuminated the sharp features of her face.

"We're not here to talk about blades. We've come to hear your take on this, yeah. Where you stand."

Sweat began gathering at Kabuto's temples; the reason for this unwelcome visit was becoming dauntingly clear.

"If you've come to threaten me, you've made a wasted journey," Orochimaru said coolly. "My sole concern right now is Konoha. I've no care for killing Sand brats, and even less for the Water Country." He paused, and then added, almost as an afterthought, "And I've no quarrel with _you._"

Kabuto's attention was now riveted solely upon the faces of the Akatsuki, eyes straining in the near-darkness to gauge their reaction. Of course, there was no question that they had come here expecting Orochimaru to deny involvement. Orochimaru's near-immortal hide was very precious to him; he would deny his own _mother _if he thought it would keep him breathing for just one moment longer. And these men knew him; knew his selfishness and his pride very well. Of course they'd been expecting him to claim innocence . . .

'_The question is: have they come to attack him, using the assassins' ring as a mere excuse, or do they seek information about this because it actually does concern them?' _Silently, subtly, Kabuto began to call upon the _chakra _he reserved for regeneration in battle. If the four visitors' reasoning was the former, then the possibility that he would die right here in this room was highly likely. If it was the latter . . . then Orochimaru would continue to spout vague half-truths until they gave up in disgust. In the best possible case they would leave the Sound Village quietly, melting back into the forest from whence they'd emerged.

A tense moment passed-a moment in which the four Akatsuki exchanged significant glances. At his sides, Kabuto's hands clenched into fists, and he shifted slightly in his chair, already assessing what course of defense he might take should they choose to attack his master.

But the moment passed . . . and the Akatsuki made no move toward the Sannin at the table.

"What we desire, Orochimaru, is information, which it seems you don't have. How . . . disappointing. I believe we're finished here."

Orochimaru's expression darkened into a scowl.

"You intend to leave so abruptly?" he asked sharply. "After bringing false accusations? Tell me: what do _you _know of this assassins' ring? Whom are they targeting?"

"We're investigating, yeah," the female replied carelessly. "Time we leave to find answers."

He turned toward the door. His clawed hand had nearly closed around the door's handle when, in a flash, Kabuto moved between him and the exit. Then the gray-haired _shinobi _opened the door for him, gesturing him through with a smile that was perilously close to mocking. The Akatsuki didn't bat an eye, and filed out without further comment.

Once outside, they appeared to know exactly where they were going, but nevertheless Kabuto followed them all the way back to the gate. He found it extremely hard to believe that they had come all this way just to pay Orochimaru a courtesy call and to ask him one question. He found it _extremely_ hard to believe that they would be satisfied with the Sannin's denial of involvement, and that they would leave so peaceably when they'd gained nothing from this.

When at last the gate had been closed behind the Akatsuki, and they had vanished into the trees, he returned to his master's chamber.

"That went well," Orochimaru remarked as Kabuto entered and shut the door behind him. He didn't even bother to look up from the scroll in front of him.

Kabuto, for once, was completely floored.

"You . . . you _do _have a hand in this?" he exclaimed, one hand clenching into a fist at his side. "You risked too much, then, letting them in."

This time the Sannin favored him with a brief glare before returning to his studies.

"Don't be stupid," he snapped, frowning down at the scroll. "I'm not involved in this. The last thing I want is to draw that much attention to us right now."

"Akatsuki's behavior isillogical," Kabuto insisted, moving further into the room and taking a seat at the far end of the table. "Why would they travel all that way just to ask you _one_ question? And why were they anywhere near the assassins in the first place, when their comrade was killed? They couldn't have developed an interest in this 'assassins' ring' _before _his death, could they?"

Orochimaru finally gave up on the scroll, losing patience. Kabuto tensed in his chair; when Orochimaru lost patience, heads tended to find themselves detached from their bodies.

Fortunately, the Sannin was in a relatively good mood because the Akatsuki interrogation "went well."

"They didn'tcome all this way for that," Orochimaru agreed. "Akatsuki does nothing without deliberation. They were already _in_ the Fire Country with their five members when my underlings caught sight of them. At the time, my _shinobi _learned that Uchiha Sasuke had left Konoha. That in itself was of minor concern to me, but then they came upon the five Akatsuki traveling northwest, and that report _did _concern me. The point, Kabuto-_kun, _is that the Akatsuki_ were already in the Fire Country _when they were attacked. So yes, something about this assassins' ring concerns them, the death of the ninth one aside."

Kabuto ran a hand across his mouth, speculating.

"Something this widespread, commanding the attention of Akatsuki . . . shouldn't it demand _our _attention as well?" he mused.

Orochimaru snorted derisively.

"No. The Sound _shinobi _obviously aren't the targets, or with our heavy presence in the northwestern forests we would have been attacked by now. Let Akatsuki deal with this threat if they choose; we stay focused on our own goals."

Kabuto's frown deepened. He lowered his head, red lantern-light gleaming in the lenses of his glasses.

"The four were satisfied too easily," he remarked, unwilling to drop the subject. "They took your word too quickly. They musthave had ulterior motives for coming here tonight . . ."

Orochimaru went back to his reading.

"_Tch, _Kabuto-_kun. _Pay better attention. The other two---the ones who didn't speak---were _Bunshin. _No doubt their real counterparts were busy investigating the city while you led their clones to me."

Kabuto glanced up sharply in alarm.

"In that case, how can you possiblysay this went well?" he demanded, spreading his palms against the table's surface. "They sent spies into our midst."

Orochimaru pushed the scroll open further, seeming unconcerned.

"I'm quite confident that they found nothing dangerous," he said mildly. "Everything that could possibly be of interest to them is safely hidden in the underground chambers, the location of which is known only to the select few. Doubtless they left with the impression that this really _is _just another upstart _shinobi _village. No doubt they'll think I've grown relatively complacent." He smiled wryly at this; a private joke.

"This was a bold move on their part," Kabuto said in a low voice.

Once again Orochimaru paused in his reading, his cold, reptilian eyes narrowing to slits. "We will deal with the Akatsuki problem later," he murmured, "when we have replenished our ranks again, and the Sharingan is mine."

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

Moving swiftly through the forest beyond the Sound Village, the four Akatsuki now kept a sharp eye out for any sign of movement among the trees.

"He claims he cares only about Konoha, where we allowed him to believe the assassins weren't necessarily present," one recanted. "But they _are _present in the forests southeast of Konoha---heavily so. The fact that he doesn't know this proves his lack of involvement."

"So Orochimaru was telling the truth . . ." another murmured. "What a rarity."

"I could number the times _that _has happened on one hand," yet another remarked dryly. "But in this case, I'm surprised. Given the ones the assassins appear to be targeting, it was natural to assume Orochimaru had a hand in this."

"Then how shall we go about this, yeah? Do we follow, to investigate?"

The first speaker lowered his head.

"It seems the best choice. Given the assassins' targets."

"Then we follow, yeah."

Their course drew them southeast through the dark wood.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

**The Aoite Road**

Slowly, painfully, Sasuke rolled into a sitting position, rubbing his forehead and scowling. The haziness was taking a long time to clear from his vision. To his right, he heard the soft sound of footsteps through the grass, and then Kakashi's gray-clad legs moved into view.

"Sakura's won," the Jounin said quietly.

Sitting beside Sasuke, Sakura was rubbing her legs and wincing. A long, dark bruise was already forming across her shins. Naruto was still flat on his back.

"However, all three of you will be spending the rest of the night training," Kakashi went on, looking down at the three Genin at his feet.

Sakura's head snapped up, injuries temporarily forgotten.

"What!" Her jaw dropped. "Why?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to protest as well, but then promptly shut it again as he looked up at Kakashi. The Jounin was notpleased. When something worried him, there was a certain subtle heavinessto the air around Kakashi that made up for the concealment of facial expressions behind the mask.

Anything that worried the easygoing Kakashi usually meant Imminent Death.

The Jounin crouched beside Naruto, briefly laying a hand to the Genin's forehead.

When the contact elicited no response, he returned his attention to the two sitting up.

"In a sense, really, you _all _lost," Kakashi told them, settling back on his heels. "From the very beginning I intended to make you practice for the remainder of the night. You need basics before you'll be any good in combat, and you need discipline for pulling a stunt that stupid when you know we're being hunted by killers."

Sleep deprivation and the recent tense mood had made Sakura especially grumpy, and she only grumbled in response, "It was Naruto's idea."

Kakashi elected to ignore this particular relegation of blame.

"You all lost," he went on inexorably, "because you didn't fight with skill. You went for what you thought would do the most _damage_ instead of aiming to incapacitate your opponent swiftly. So now you're all covered with bruises and lumps on the head, which is going to make the training a lot more unpleasant. I told you---the last one _standing _would be the winner. All you had to do was keep your two opponents _on the ground _to win." He paused, scratching his head and eyeing them drolly. "But of course you lot missed that point from the beginning. You were all too keen on beating the tar out of each other."

Sasuke cast a glare Naruto's way, but then he rose to his feet, fishing his _boken _out of the grass again. Sakura remained on the ground, looking as if she couldn't decide which she wanted to kill more_---_Naruto or Sasuke.

'_THEY started this,' _the Inner Sakura fumed. _'BOYS and their damned EGOS!' _Of course, Sakura hadn't exactly stopped Naruto from _initiating _the prank in the first place, but the Inner Sakura could be pretty selective in her perception of things.

"Get up," Kakashi ordered, rising to stand himself. "Pick up your weapons." He paused, looking down to his left. "Naruto, you'll want to stop faking unconsciousness, because I'm going to work with you all on a certain blocking technique that I feel is the most important."

One blue eye cracked open, cautiously at first, but then Naruto sprang to his feet.

"Really? We're done with the exercises?"

Sasuke and Sakura stared at him wordlessly; he seemed as energetic as if he'd just risen from a good night's sleep.

'_I should've hit him harder,' _both thought at once.

Kakashi, in the meantime, was already calmly picking up the _boken _their Rain ninja escort had left behind.

"Listen, you three," he said in a low voice as the Genin finished retrieving their practice swords. "Before we begin, I'll say this: I want none of you to be alone with Shikyo_. Ever. _Understood? If for some reason we're separated, do _not _allow any one of you to remain with him without another present." He made this pronouncement calmly, as if it were as trivial as discussing the weather, but the fact that he'd mentioned it at all meant that it wasn't.

It sounded like a warning.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

The three Genin trained long into the night, and almost until dawn, when a fuzzy gray light spread thinly over the inn's roof, and the night-lanterns were finally extinguished by one of the staff. Only then did Kakashi see fit to let them stagger back to their room. The Jounin was satisfied with the progress they'd made; they were now able to use their swords to block flesh contact from every angle he came at them. There were exceptions, of course, made because of his phenomenal speed and their exhaustion-dulled reflexes, but he felt these were only temporary setbacks at worst. They were idiots, but they did learn quickly.

Having obtained an adequate amount of rest himself, Kakashi kept watch over them all as they slept. He allowed them all what he estimated to be about five hours of rest before awakening them to set off down the road again. They didn't take lunch before leaving; Shikyo felt that they'd wasted enough time as it was. Kakashi, on the other hand, felt that the delay had been quite necessary. As they traveled, he forced his three subordinates to walk in a formation of sorts, so that they could practice blocking each other with the _boken. _The training involved a lot of poke-and-jab, because the Genin playing the role of "attacker" had to come at his or her armed opponent with bare hands, trying to touch bare skin. The result involved everyone's arms being decorated black and blue, and more than one smashed finger.

"I think I'm going to lose this nail," Sakura observed sadly, eyeing a pinky-finger that had turned a nasty shade of purple.

Naruto, in the meantime, rubbed his arms and affected a sour expression like his friends', but his bruises hadn't lasted at all. They had disappeared almost as soon as they formed. Fortunately, he was wearing long sleeves, which helped him to avoid drawing the suspicion of his fellow Genin and possibly Shikyo as well. Naruto squinted sidelong at Shikyo; he still hadn't figured out whether the Rain ninja knew about the Nine-Tails. If not, then he decided that was how it was going to stay.

By late afternoon the dark clouds had come rolling in to cover the blue autumn sky, fading the forest leaves around them to dull brown and blood-dark crimson. Then it began to rain steadily-a rain which persisted and showed no sign of letting up. When the sun had finally set, Kakashi allowed everyone a break for dinner, disregarding Shikyo's now-customary impatience. The Konoha Jounin produced from his pack a sack of dumplings purchased from the inn. The rain hadn't gotten any less steady, however, and the meal was eaten cold with no fire to cook it over. After dinner there was another three hours' travel as steady and monotonous as the rain, and then to everyone's dismay they came upon no other towns and were forced to spend the night outdoors.

Kakashi enlisted the boys' aid in erecting a crude shelter, made of branches and the tarp he'd brought in his pack. Sakura, he said, was exempted from this task because she'd won the previous night's sparring. Sasuke and Naruto spent half the time holding up branches while Kakashi tied them together and half the time shooting Sakura dirty looks. Sakura was blissfully unaware of the dirty looks because she was busy trying to run a comb through her hair-which, at this point, was too soaked and filthy even to be frizzy.

The shelter proved to be entirely too small for four people in four sleeping bags to fit in comfortably, so Naruto found himself crammed in quite _un_comfortably with his teacher and two teammates and four very damp, very _squashed_ sleeping bags. Kakashi's legs were so long that his feet stuck out part-way. Only Sakura seemed happy with this arrangement, because even though they lay head-to-foot she was practically sleeping on top of Sasuke. Naruto pulled a face, squinting at her feet in the near-perfect darkness. Why she _liked_ sleeping next to Sasuke was beyond him---they were now nearly three days out of Konoha and exhausted from training, and they all smelledlike it.

Shikyo alone remained outside, keeping watch. Naruto craned his neck to peer out at the man, who sat perched on a tree root several yards away.

"_Oi,_" he whispered to his fellow Genin. "Shikyo-_san _isn't even sitting under a branchor anything.He's soaked!"

"Well, he _is _a Rainninja," Sakura murmured sleepily. Then she chuckled woozily at her own pun.

Sasuke merely snorted irritably. He was lying on his back, with both arms drawn in as tightly to his chest as he could manage. It was difficult being morose and antisocial when one was packed in tightly enough with one's comrades to smell onion on their breath from the previous meal.

For a while, there was silence save for the rain pattering on the leaves. Then Naruto revealed that the cogs in his brain were still grinding.

"Maybe he _does _like rain," he suggested. "Maybe his clan's bloodline trait is to absorb rain like food, andthat'swhy he never wants to stop and eat."

Neither Sakura nor Sasuke replied; both went silent with amazement at the idea's sheer stupidity. Naruto chose to interpret the silence as a sign that they were listening.

"Maybe . . ." he rambled on, "this whole rotten trip is all a _plot_ by the Hidden Village of Rain to---"

"Naruto, shut up," Kakashi said, unexpectedly.

Naruto obeyed, scowling and finally closing his eyes.

Soon Kakashi was the only one left awake. He was listening intently for sounds other than the raindrops.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

In the morning, the travelers awoke to the pleasant surprise of sunshine streaming in slantwise through the shelter. Sasuke awoke to the not-so-gentle sensation of Naruto poking him repeatedly in the head, chattering something about breakfast. He tried to scoot out of his sleeping bag, grumbling something about not wanting breakfast, only to find that find that Sakura was hugging his legs in her sleep.

Later, after he'd finally pried himself loose from her, Sasuke joined his four companions around a fire.

"Nice hair," Naruto remarked, grinning impishly and pointing across the fire at Sasuke. "You look like a cockatiel."

Sasuke's only retort was a withering look. Kakashi blinked drolly at Naruto, wondering vaguely how the boy had managed to miss the presence of the stick in _his_ yellow hair. It stuck out slantwise, like some sort of mutant antler.

The clamor for breakfast, as it turned out, was utterly justified, for Kakashi had bought a string of fish. They were small, but once gutted, skewered, and roasted over the fire they tasted far better than cold dumplings. Everyone's spirits had lifted by the end of the meal, except for Shikyo's, which seemed to be worsening the further they traveled. If Kakashi noticed-which was likely; he didn't miss much-he chose to ignore it, and his students followed suit. Though they didn't understand Kakashi's warning, it had served to deepen the feeling of unease each of them had around Shikyo.

As they ate, Kakashi relayed tidings that made even Sasuke crack an almost-smile. The fish was fresh because it had been purchased from a merchant heading north from the ocean. According to the merchant, the sea was only one day's journey away down the Aoite Road, which to the traveling _shinobi _meant a temporary respite from all the walking. They would follow the road to a seaport village and cross by boat the strait between the Fire and Water Countries.

After breakfast the group set out with a good deal more optimism in their stride. No one even saw fit to grimace over the ankle deep mud that the rain had made of the road-except for Naruto, who amused himself by goose-stepping his way along. He was wearing a pair of blue boots that fit but looked as if they'd seen their better years, and he pretended to be disgusted by the splotching noise they made whenever he put his foot down.

"It's just like stepping in dog shit," he remarked cheerily. "Over and over and over again."

No one replied; it wasn't a conversation any of them wanted to start.

By nightfall they had reached the village by the sea-a small, rustic place where there was only one inn and it didn't have indoor toilets.

"The watchman's sighted the passenger boat in the distance," Kakashi announced over dinner. "We'll be taking that one as soon as it arrives. Everyone dress warmly; the watchmen also says his back's hurting him, and in these parts that passes for a storm warning."

Sasuke nodded absently, slurping at the hot tea in front of him.

"Sakura-_chan_, why aren't you drinking yours?" Naruto asked, setting his down to squint at Sakura, who was looking rather quiet and peakish.

Sakura scowled at him, which meant that she preferred to go on being quiet and peakish in peace. Truth be told, she was avoiding the tea because there weren't any indoor toilets, and she didn't want the embarrassment of having one of the Jounin follow her when she peed outdoors. _"Hell no!" _the Inner Sakura agreed. The Outer Sakura blushed.

She counted herself fortunate enough that she'd managed to avoid it during the day-and-a-half journey from the inn.

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

The _shinobi _were only allowed an hour of sleep at the inn before Kakashi roused them to board the ship. Then they shouldered their packs once again and stumbled up the gangplank.

The ship was a grander affair than the boats they'd seen in the Wave Country. It was fashioned from a darker, harder wood, which Shikyo told them grew only in the forests of the Water Country. Lanterns hung on posts at various intervals around the ship's railings, revealing that the sides of the hull were painted with the patterns of rolling waves. The hull itself was large, allowing room for its passengers to sleep on hammocks in a space nearly four feet high. As it was raining and nothing was currently being required of them, the Genin made straight for the hammocks. Three hours later, they emerged at Kakashi's behest and immediately wished they hadn't, because that was when the seasickness set in.

To distract himself from the nausea, Naruto immediately made a beeline for the prow, peering out into the darkness ahead in hopes of catching the first glimpse of their destination. The ocean below-which he could see by lantern-light-was a choppy, uninviting bluish black.

"Nothing out there but blue water and black sky," Shikyo called to him. The Rain ninja was perched on a crate nearby, busy sharpening the points of the needles he carried on a whetstone.

Naruto squinted back at him in suspicion. He took Kakashi's warning quite seriously, and he also hadn't forgotten the fact that the assassins in the Fire Country had come after them with needles. By his simple reasoning, both these things only served to confirm the negative impression he'd first received. Naruto liked people who knew how to have fun, while Shikyo never seemed to relax at all. By Naruto's count, he had never once seen the man slouchlet alone laughWherever the Rain ninja sat, he sat poker-straight, and he always looked tense and grave.

Giving up on sighting land, Naruto made his way back across the deck wearing a scowl. His stomach was churning right along with the waves underneath him.

It was still raining.

Once the entire team was assembled, Kakashi cast Naruto a brief, interested glance.

'_Apparently,' _the Jounin mused, '_Kyuubi's chakra doesn't heal afflictions caused by an imbalance of the inner ear.' _This made sense, considering the fact that Naruto was vulnerable to _genjutsu_.

"In a bit I want you three resuming your exercises," he said aloud. "This is the last real opportunity you'll have to train in the way you're . . . used to."

Naruto and Sakura exchanged bemused glances; Sasuke frowned at Kakashi.

"What does _that _mean?" he asked in a low voice.

Kakashi motioned for them to sit, and they settled down on the deck, leaning their backs against the ship's wooden railing.

"There was a reasonbehind my making you wear plainclothes," he explained. "And it wasn't just to keep us from revealing our presence in Mizutou to the Mist Ninja. According to Shikyo-_san, _Mizutou is home to a unique class of warriors. By unique, I mean to say that they use only _kenjutsu_. They are Lord Garyu's elite guard-part of some tradition that goes back many generations in his family." He paused, his one visible eye narrowing. "They also have an unspoken tradition of hating _shinobi."_

Naruto's mouth fell open.

"What! Why?" Sakura demanded, planting both of her palms hard on the deck. When outraged, the Outer and Inner Sakura's tended to move in sync.

"They're jealous of our power."

The four Leaf ninja turned toward Shikyo, who was still honing his needles atop the crate.

"Garyu-_sama's _ancestral predecessors named them the 'Heikou Force'," he went on, without bothering to look up from his work. "I don't know much about their reasoning; they don't exactly speak freely in front of me. Even my lord claims he doesn't understand the tradition. But the Heikou are the reason why _I _am the only _shinobi _under the Water-lord's command."

After this cryptic pronouncement, the Rain ninja fell silent.

Sasuke turned back toward Kakashi.

"So we're going to hide ourselves from them?" he asked in a low voice. "Is that it?"

Kakashi studied the three young faces, peering up at him in various degrees of outrage. They were proud of what they were, his team. These were children raised in a place where they were taught to view their strength with pride. In this way, he supposed, they had led a sheltered life. Others, like the boy Haku, had not been so fortunate.

Having lived longer and seen more of the world, Kakashi knew there were places where the ninja bloodlines were feared and hated.

"You're going to keep a low profile," he corrected Sasuke. "The Heikou already know we're coming. But they, unlike the lord they serve, do _not _know what we're capable of. They aren't privy to any information about us at all, and that's the way I'd like to keep it. I want you to avoid displays of your _ninjutsu _in all but two situations: if Lord Garyu is in immediate danger, or if your own lives are threatened. Then and onlythen may you act." He paused here for emphasis, to show his students how serious he was, his gaze sliding pointedly between Naruto and Sasuke. "No more stunts," he admonished sternly. "We'rethe foreigners here, in the territory of the Mist _shinobi, _and if we fail this can result in not only our deaths but war between our Villages."

All three Genin nodded solemnly. Sakura and Naruto's eyes were wide as owls', and Sasuke's were narrowed as if in boredom, which Kakashi interpreted to mean the Uchiha boy was nervous as well. He nodded curtly in satisfaction; it was good that they respected the gravity of the situation. In a situation like this he needed soldiers, not children.

"Good," he told them after the prolonged silence. "Now that I've said that, you can go resume your exercises. Once the captain's sighted land, we'll be changing course to sail toward the northernmost port to dock. There you'll be sleeping a few hours on board the ship before we take the western road around the coast toward Mizutou."

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

The last round of _kenjutsu _training was ended prematurely by circumstances quite beyond mortal control. The rain gave way to a lightning storm, which caused Kakashi to call off the practice and send his students back down into the hull for a rest. After a while he joined them, conceding to his own exhaustion.

In the musty darkness of the hull, Sasuke lay awake on his back. The hammock beneath him swayed none too gently, because the rough water was rocking the whole ship back and forth. His companions were somehow all asleep despite the fact that all hell seemed to be coming at them with a hammer. Low, hard waves slammed into the wood; it sounded like it was going to break.

Even above the din from outside he could still hear Naruto snoring.

Sasuke lay there for a while with his hands tucked beneath his neck, staring up at the low ceiling above him. He listened for the deep, quiet breathing of his other companions, waiting for them to fall asleep, all the while watching the play of lightning through the cracks and knotholes in the wood.

Then he rolled deftly onto his feet and crept on hands and knees across the floor toward the ladder.

The short climb led him onto the deck, where after opening the hatch and replacing it quietly behind him he found himself nearly bowled over by the wind. Clutching a nearby mast and glancing about him, he saw the captain at the helm and the four other crew members securing the side riggings to keep the sails straight. He released the mast and made his way toward the rear of the ship.

"You're a restless one, aren't you?" Shikyo remarked mildly as the grim-faced Genin approached him from behind.

The Rain ninja was standing near one of the lanterns, peering out across the heaving sea. Sasuke rather admired his fortitude; even Kakashi hadn't wanted to take the watch during this.

"You're not just out for a walk, either," Shikyo went on without turning around as Sasuke approached him. "Well, I know what you're going to ask. And the answer's no."

Behind him, the Rain ninja heard the Uchiha boy's soft steps falter.

"'_No' _you don't know it, or '_no' _you won't teach it to me?" Sasuke asked quietly.

Shikyo sighed, tipping his head back as a fresh gust of sea-spray blew against him.

"There's a dark look in your eye, boy. I understand what you want---or what you _think _you want. But the answer's still no."

The Rain ninja stood still as a statue, gazing out over the sea until at last he heard the footsteps begin a stealthy retreat. He pressed his lips together in a grim line.

'_Uchiha . . . Sasuke . . .' _he mused. _'This one will be useful.'_

**o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o**

**Konoha**

Early in the morning-at a time to which he was highly unaccustomed-Jiraiya made his way through the crowds of early market-goers, heading southward from the inn where he was staying. In his hand, he carried the documents he'd borrowed the previous day.

He had spent all night studying them, trying to make sense of this.

And now . . . in the cool gray of morning, his swift stride carried him to the very door mentioned in the papers. There were only two living men who knew the technique known as _Shinkuhana_. One was away on a mission; the other answered the door when he knocked.

"Morino Ibiki?" Jiraiya said quietly. "I'm sorry to wake you, but there's something I need to discuss."

The bald-headed Jounin had come to the door in a gray, faded shirt and trousers that apparently served for nightclothes. He wasn't wearing his forehead-protector, and the ugly scars across his scalp stood out even in the faint light. He took one look at his unexpected visitor and his sharp eyes narrowed.

"Sannin-_sama. _Come in."

Jiraiya was concise, explaining his concerns as swiftly as he could while Ibiki listened. At the end of his tale, the Jounin nodded, his grizzled brow wrinkling.

"You want to know how I came to learn the Crimson Blossom Technique? I can't tell you anything useful. I didn't learn it from the Mist _shinobi, _its creators; I learned it from the Jounin Kakashi, many years ago. This was primarily for the purpose of preserving knowledge of the technique for inscription, so that it could be studied once we had safely returned to Konoha . . ."

Jiraiya frowned as well.

". . . but the Fourth declared it forbidden," he finished. "Even the _scroll_ was destroyed; only you and Kakashi carry knowledge of it."

Ibiki's mouth twisted wryly.

"I've banished it from my memory," he said, a bit sharply. "It's more than just a danger when it's put to use."

"What do you mean?"

The Jounin lowered his head, and for once he averted his sharp gaze.

"What it _does _and what it does to your _mind_ are not so very different," he said cryptically. "It's hard to explain---the strange contradiction of knowing that you can kill _anyone you choose _while knowing that you must die as well. You look around you, and you begin to wonder 'Who's worth it? How important does it have to be to be worth dying for?_' _You become so preoccupied with wasting or not wasting your life---or wasting your chance to kill someone---that it begins to consume your strength as a soldier." He looked up, shaking his head and smiling grimly. "I chose to bury it, through hypnosis and memory drugs, so that I would never use it. I didn't want that kind of power to eat away my strength of mind."

Slowly, Jiraiya nodded. On several levels, he didunderstand.

"And Hatake Kakashi?" he prompted. "Has he also chosen to forget?"

"Hmm . . ." Ibiki murmured thoughtfully. "No. Long ago he chose his purpose for keeping it, given special circumstances. He already made his choice of where and when to use it, so he won't be unraveled by the inner confusion." He paused, noting Jiraiya's questioning look. "So what _was_ his choice? It's a great burden on him, no doubt-one that may never be lifted. But the answer is staring you in the face."

Ibiki reached across the table, laying one thick finger on the dossier in front of the Sannin. Jiraiya looked down.

The Jounin was pointing to the page where Kakashi's team members were listed.

**END OF CHAPTER 4**

_Yamisui: The scenario with Akatsuki paying a visit to the Sound Village stretches the canon quite a bit, because I only recently found out that the Sound Village is just one year old. However, it isn't totally implausible, either---all the ninja seem to know the location of each others' "Hidden" villages, and I would think Akatsuki would certainly be interested in the one set up by their enemy. At this point it's really too late to change that part anyway, so you readers commenting on it won't help me. Just try to enjoy the story for its own sake; hopefully I've made it interesting enough to distract you from the canon holes. I'll admit this chapter's been a bit slow compared to 2 and 3, but think of it as the quiet before the storm. _


	5. Mizutou Arrival! Shinobi Under Cover!

_Author's Note: On a ship, "fore" means "front" and "aft" means "back." I'm not trying to be condescending; I felt I had to define these for you readers because when it came to ships I had to go look up some of the terms myself. (Yamisui is a land-lubber.) Also, "Suiton" means "waterfall," used in context with Kakashi's technique for controlling powerful columns of water._

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**o o Chapter 5: Mizutou Arrival! Shinobi Under Cover! o o**

**oOo oOo oOo**

**The Water Country**

The rains that followed the storm were by far the worst, drumming relentlessly against the deck of the ship. However, as its passengers neared their destination, the hard weather finally abated. The low clouds remained, but the air grew warmer and mist rolled in around the ship.

Kakashi was none too pleased.

"Can nothing be done for the visibility?" he pressed, joining several of the crewmen at the lanterns. "Can't the lights be suspended out over the water? I don't like not being able to see what I'm floating through."

The crewmen looked to their captain, who was standing beside Shikyo at the helm. Shikyo nodded and spoke quietly with the captain, gesturing toward the cliffs jutting darkly out of the sea ahead. Then the captain barked an order, and his men proceeded to remove the lantern-posts from their fastenings. These they turned sideways and re-fastened suspended over the water, hanging from their poles. In this fashion the water was illuminated for ten feet out from the ship in every direction.

"Not enough," Kakashi murmured, his frown remaining. "Sasuke!"

Sasuke hastened over. Naruto and Sakura followed a little ways behind, curious as to what Kakashi wanted. The three of them had appeared above deck as soon as land was sighted, filled with renewed hope that their heaving guts would soon be at peace.

"Sasuke, we're going to make an exception to my rule about keeping a low profile," Kakashi explained, nodding toward the fog-laden waters ahead. "When we pass by those rocks up ahead, I want you to lend us some light." Sasuke murmured assent, but his dark eyes slid sideways toward the crewmen standing nearby. "The crew knows what we are," Kakashi added in a low voice. "But more importantly, so do the ones in the water."

"What?" Naruto exclaimed loudly. "In the _wa. . ."_

He was immediately silenced as Kakashi clapped a hand across his mouth.

"Idiot," Sasuke hissed. "If our enemies know _we_ know they're there, we won't have the element of surprise."

Naruto and Sakura nodded grimly, and Kakashi released his hold, satisfied that there would be no more forthcoming noise.

"If for some reason we should be separated," he told them, "you all carry a map of the island. Go to Mizutou and we'll regroup there. We are all in danger here, but so is our contractor. Garyu-_sama _is lord of the Water Country. His protection is to be prioritized at all costs."

Naruto said nothing, but lowered his eyes a little. As sensible and just as it was, something about the order disagreed with him. But Kakashi knew best in a situation like this, and so he kept his silence.

"Sakura, you take starboard; Naruto, port," the Jounin instructed calmly. "I'll take aft."

Naruto blinked quizzically, raising one eyebrow. Sakura poked him in the arm.

"'Port' means 'left'," she whispered.

"Oh, right," Naruto agreed, as if he'd known all along.

Kakashi distributed the weapons he'd brought for them in his pack, and added one final warning: "Remember your training." There was no question as to whattraining Kakashi meant; the three Genin nodded grimly. Strapped across their backs, they now carried real _katana_.

"They're going to attack the _ship_?" Sasuke muttered dubiously. "Are they targeting the Water-Lord or us?"

The three comrades exchanged serious glances. If Kakashi's suspicions proved correct, they were about to face the Crimson Blossom _Jutsu _once again . . . and here there wasn't anywhere to run.

They departed for their posts. Kakashi conferred briefly with the captain, and the crew lowered the sails, taking up posts at the oars on either side of the ship. Shikyo had ordered them to take the ship into port as swiftly as possible, growing impatient with the lack of wind, but Kakashi was reluctant. He was more concerned with keeping all the members of his team alive at this point.

Shikyo, who was standing at the prow, suddenly turned and hastened to join Kakashi at the stern. Sasuke took his place, watching the Rain ninja hurry past with narrowed eyes. If Shikyo noticed the dark look, he chose not to acknowledge it.

"Kakashi-_san_!" he snapped, approaching the Leaf Jounin, who stood facing the fog-veiled waters behind them. "What is the meaning of this? We were to make port in Harbor Village, which lies but one mile in from here! Why has the ship changed course?"

"We're passing _by _the rocks instead ofthrough them because we're rounding the coast instead of making port," Kakashi replied calmly, without turning around. "The original plan is useless now, for our enemies know we're here. We'll abandon stealth now and aim for speed." Ahead of him, he could see the faintest dark shadow, gliding through the water after the ship just beyond the range of the lantern-light.

Shikyo did not take this news gracefully.

"Rounding the . . . ? Rounding the _coast_? Are you _mad_?"

"Possibly," Kakashi mused, rubbing his chin with the long fingers of one hand. "But if so, it's going to take a madman to see us through this course alive, so I suggest you remove your hand from my arm."

Shikyo hastily removed the hand he'd laid on the Jounin's shoulder. Kakashi's tone was light, but his words were a warning.

The ship veered southeast. Shikyo left Kakashi's side to join Sasuke at his post. Kakashi watched him with his peripheral vision, assessing the situation. As Shikyo retreated he'd surreptitiously pulled his mask down, uncovering his Sharingan eye. With it he could see that the Rain ninja was gathering _chakra _into the flesh of his hands. This could mean one of two things: he was preparing to defend the ship . . . or he was about to betray them.

Hidden in the shadows of the ship's railing, Kakashi's hands began forming a seal. The coming battle would decide whether Shikyo lived to see another sunrise.

On either side of the ship, the lanterns spontaneously snuffed out, one by one.

The mist-shrouded waters were plunged into darkness.

"I don't like this," Naruto muttered, squinting to see over the railing on his side. The mist rose up the side of the hull, chilling his face.

A hand shot out of the mist, caught him by the front of his jacket, and pulled him swiftly over the side.

Naruto plummeted downward into the water.

His descent was accelerated by the strong grip of the arm pulling him. The impact stung his face, but even so he'd had the presence of mind to take a breath as he fell, which was fortunate because his attacker seemed intent on pulling him deep beneath the surface. Naruto suppressed the very natural instinct to thrash. Instead, with some difficulty, he drew the _katana _from its sheath, which was still securely strapped to his back.

Experimentally, he slashed at the arm pulling him, only to find that his blade glanced harmlessly off some kind of hard-plated armor around the wrist. The pressure of the water around him was going to make it too difficult for him to slash hard enough to pierce the armor. Also, he now had a sword in his hand that he couldn't reinsert into its sheath because the water and the darkness wouldn't permit . . . which eliminated the option of forming seals for _ninjutsu _because only one hand was free.

Mind racing furiously, Naruto tried the next best thing he could think of: using the sheer strength reserved for _taijutsu, _he took hold of his jacket with hand and teeth and tore it apart. The fabric was ripped asunder in one quick motion, sending clouds of bubbles up from his body. Now he had only two sleeves and the back half of a jacket, while his attacker had a fistful of shredded cloth.

Immediately, Naruto felt his body begin to rise toward the surface, finally putting some distance between them.

The sea was too dark for his vision to penetrate, and he hadn't the foggiest idea of what his attacker looked like. He had only a vague impression of a dark, slender shape rising after him, and of two arms reaching for him, as if to wrap him in an embrace . . .

Naruto gritted his teeth and slashed outward and downward with both hands, executing a move meant to deflect the grasping arms. His vision wavered . . .

. . . and then the _genjutsu _melted away, revealing the truth of the situation.

His enemy was actually pressed close to him, wrapping the arms around him beneath the reach of the _taijutsu _strike he'd just employed. There was a wan glow in the water now, originating from somewhere above the surface. In its light, he saw a flash of movement; a gleam of metal.

And then the sickle-like blades hidden in the enemy's wrist-armor emerged. He saw them too late in his peripheral vision; in one vicious movement his attacker curled both fists downward, stabbing twin scythes into Naruto's back.

The pain was immediate and intense; Naruto couldn't suppress a cry. With it, he expelled the last of his air supply in an effervescent cloud. Blood began to swirl outward from him, darkening the water and staining the glow from above.

He inhaled sharply and found himself choking on blood and salty water. Salt stung his eyes; his nose.

In response to the sudden wound, he could feel red _chakra _beginning to stir in his body. But mere _chakra _wasn't enough. The sickle-blades in his back were meant to act as hooks, rendering him unable to break free as the enemy pulled him down to drown.

Somehow, he had to break free . . .

Dimly, as he screwed his eyes shut against the pain, he remembered that he still held the _katana _in one hand. The enemy was pressed too tightly against him in front to make stabbing a good tactic. Thus it was, with the last coherent impulse in his oxygen-deprived brain, that Naruto crooked his elbow behind him and slashed upward.

The blow from the _katana's _razor-sharp edge caught the enemy's wrists from beneath, where the armor didn't extend to cover flesh.

In the confusion that followed, Naruto no longer cared what became of his attacker. His single priority was air. The instant the blow struck home he felt the blades in his back loosen their hold, and somehow he was finally able to thrash his way free of the enemy's grip.

His final rise to the surface seemed like an eternity. His boots and clothing weighed him down. He tore the remainder of the jacket from his back, and with it the blades fell away free. He didn't bother trying to retrieve them. They sank into the dark depths, along with the boots he'd just kicked off, while his head finally broke the surface. He drew in a gasp, shaking his head to clear the water from his eyes and nose.

The ship was now nearly fifty feet away.

Squinting at it as he treaded water and caught his breath, Naruto could make out the shapes of what looked like a whole host of men crowded onto the deck. All were locked in combat. He couldn't see clearly, but it looked like there were more people fighting than just his team. It was hard to tell; the lanterns were extinguished, and the only current illumination was provided by flashes of white light, which looked like either Sasuke or Kakashi using _Chidori. _

"Shit," he breathed. If either of them was using _Chidori, _things were getting serious.

Taking advantage of the red _chakra _circulating through him now, Naruto drew some of it down into his feet and rose to run along the surface toward the ship. His eyes were trained on the battle ahead; he never saw the shadow gliding swiftly after him beneath the water.

**oOo oOo oOo**

"Sasuke, don't use that _jutsu _again," Kakashi admonished. "At least, not until I give the order."

Gritting his teeth, Sasuke allowed the electricity in his palm to dispel, crackling as it vanished into thin air. There was something profoundly unpleasant about having to call back _Chidori_, akin to holding himself shut inside. The excitement of it brought crimson to his eyes; made him want to raze down every enemy standing in his way with lightning. But he knew Kakashi was right, and he wasn't stupid enough to disobey orders.

Not like Naruto.

Now that he thought of it . . .

"Where _is_ Naruto?" Sakura asked him. She had just managed to fight her way to her teammates' side. She looked shaken and very pale. In the gleam of his dying _Chidori, _Sasuke noticed that she carried her _katana _unsheathed, and that there was a good deal of blood slathered across the blade.

"How the hell should _I _know?" he snapped, forced to retreat several steps until he was back-to-back with Kakashi. A new opponent had just appeared in front of him, slashing at his face with what looked to be very long finger-blades stained with poison. "That moron can take care of himself!" He'd been wondering the same thing, however. He couldn't see Naruto anywhere on board.

Drawing his _shuriken _in a flash, Sasuke launched himself forward again, slicing low across the stomach of his opponent. Instead of a spurt of hot blood, he suddenly found himself drenched with salt water.

"Water clones," he muttered, spinning on one foot to regain his balance after the lunge. "But where's the real one?"

Another materialized beside him, having just scuttled spider-like over the side of the hull. However many there were in the water waiting to board after him, Sasuke had no idea. His Sharingan eyes couldn't pierce through fog.

"Forget the one using the _Mizu Bunshin, _Sasuke," Kakashi said sharply, even as he used his _katana _to slice another of the _Bunshin _in half. "I'll worry about thatFind Naruto."

Sasuke gritted his teeth, landing a punch to his own opponent's throat that sent the man sprawling onto the deck. Water splashed every which way as the _Bunshin _dispelled. Then, with the way suddenly cleared, he launched himself forward. All the while he was cursing Naruto in his head; his comrades and the one remaining lantern were all at the ship's fore-front, and Kakashi was sending him aft, into the fog rolling in with the darkness.

It was only a journey of thirty feet or so, but Sasuke soon found himself blinder than he had been during their run through the Fire Country's forests . . . and considerably more confused. He saw no sign of Naruto, but soon found himself confronted with an enemy no matter what direction he turned.

'_Just how many of them are there?' _he wondered, with deep misgivings. His sharp intuition told him that this was a confusion tactic, and a good one. The enemy was using a combination of _Bunshin _and fog to disorient the Leaf ninja. The ship was also beginning to rock back and forth, which made no sense because the waters through which they were sailing had been still moments before. He had no idea what this sudden choppiness meant, but he severely doubted it was a good thing.

There also seemed to be more _shinobi _fighting off the attackers than Sasuke remembered. At one point he could've sworn he was spared a blade in the gut by someone too tall and broad-shouldered to be either Shikyo or Naruto. The man wielding the blade disappeared into the fog with a grunt of pain as the stranger's fist met his head. Sasuke, however, didn't have time to dwell on the mystery of this. He had reached the stern bow of the ship, but he still couldn't see a damn thing. The sly caress of cold mist and sea-spray on his cheeks was beginning to annoy him.

Drawing _chakra _into his lungs, he formed a seal, heaved a great breath, and exhaled fire.

A brilliant helix of flame spiraled out over the water behind the ship, cutting through the gray-blue darkness and banishing the fog from its immediate vicinity. In the lee of this sudden illumination, he saw Naruto running barefoot toward the ship, splashing softly as he moved. He also noticed another, more curious thing: the water seemed to be naturally choppy. Somehow, the helmsman had steered the ship into a place where the ocean current was rougher . . . or the enemy had somehow maneuvered the ship _for _them . . . The latter seemed more likely, to the end of using the turbulent motion to disorient the Leaf ninja aboard.

However, this particular problem was more immediately eclipsed by what Sasuke saw behind Naruto. A dark shape moved beneath the water, gliding swift and silent after the oblivious Genin. Something that this figure carried with it as it moved was glowing an ominous, fiery red, despite the fact that it was underwater.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called loudly, running pell-mell for the stern.

"Run FASTER, you DUMB SHIT!" Sasuke shouted back at him.

And Naruto, being Naruto, actually _slowed down_ to glance back over his shoulder.

"WHAT! WHAT! Is it a SHAR . . ."

At that instant, the very last flames from Sasuke's _jutsu _dispelled. A split second later, the explosion came.

**oOo oOo oOo**

"Kakashi-_san_!"

Kakashi, who had just managed to block an attack aimed for Sakura with one vicious swipe of his _katana, _looked up in time to see Shikyo appear beside him out of nowhere. At the sight of him stepping into the pool of light cast by the lone lantern, Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

Beneath them, the deck heaved abruptly.

Kakashi held his ground.

"Sakura," he called sharply. "We'll be abandoning ship shortly."

Sakura, who was standing at his back, stumbled to her feet. The impact had thrown her.

"Kakashi-_sensei, _what about the crew?" she asked, sounding confused. "They need us for---"

"The captain and his crew are Leaf _shinobi_," Kakashi answered shortly. "They don't need our protection."

Shikyo didn't register any sign of surprise or disapproval of this, but his face was grim. The ship lurched again, and the Rain ninja stumbled.

"We must abandon soonKakashi!" he urged, grabbing hold of the mast to regain his balance. "The ship will round the coast and be caught in the Hinan Current. Your men won't be able to turn it back."

"We're not leaving without all of our team," Kakashi said firmly. "Splitting up would be a bad idea . . . I've sent Sasuke to find Naruto."

From somewhere aft, there came a sudden explosion, so violent that the ship simultaneously surged forward and rolled sideways.

Kakashi was flung downward into the railing on the port side. Sakura, who was standing further starboard, was nearly swept clear off the deck by the momentum, but fortunately Shikyo reached out and caught hold of her arm before she could go flying. She hit the tilted deck hard, but quickly regained her wits. With her free hand she jammed the point of her _katana _into the wood, bracing herself so that some of the strain was taken off Shikyo's wrist. Below her, Kakashi clung to the railing, a bit stunned. Water washed upward over his shoulders, soaking his hair and plastering it to his forehead.

He blinked; the salt stung his eyes. Then he recovered his bearings, hauling himself back upright.

"What was _that_?" Sakura shouted down to him. Shikyo was pulling her up to his level so that she could take hold of the mast.

"A bomb," Kakashi deduced, squinting toward the opposite end of the ship. He hoped the bomb and Sasuke had nothing to do with each other. "Hold on; the ship will move again."

True to his word, the hull began to roll in the water, with a mighty groan. The groan was followed by a series of loud cracks, which told Kakashi that the rolling ship was dragging broken masts and sails with it as it lifted. He decided then that they would have to abandon immediately, because without a full set of sails the oarsmen wouldn't be able to gain enough speed to turn back from the Hinan Current. They had run out of time for hesitation.

As the ship rolled upright, Kakashi sprang up the slanted deck toward his two companions.

"Sakura! Go to the prow!" he ordered. "Mold _chakra_. We'll be running across the water."

From her silence, Kakashi could tell she was dying to ask what was going on, but to her credit she obeyed and headed fore. His Genin were stupid, but sometimes they listened.

He reached the mast and hooked an elbow around it to secure his balance. Then he formed a rather complicated seal, and suddenly there was a brown bird winging its way aft through the mist. Watching it, he told Shikyo, "We'll go now."

He noted shrewdly that the barrage of attacks miraculously seemed to have abated. The enemy was withdrawing, which could mean several things, the first being that their attackers did not want to follow them into the Hinan Current. That was perfectly understandable. Kakashi had ordered the crew to take this course on purpose; the Current was deadly swift, and the weather incredibly harsh on that side of the island. The second possibility was that the other Leaf _shinobi _aboard had defeated them. This didn't seem likely, given the urgent shouts Kakashi could hear from somewhere astern. He knew the voice of the captain, and the shouting sounded confused. The third option was that killing those aboard the ship had not been the true aim of the attack. This last seemed equally as likely, but it was also the most puzzling. From analyzing the attack strategy, Kakashi had noticed something odd.

However, this was not the time for analysis. A freezing wind was beginning to dispel the mist cloaking the ship.

They were rounding the coast.

**oOo oOo oOo**

One second he was plunged into darkness so absolute it felt like death. The next, he was wrapped in flame.

It burst upward from beneath him even as instinct compelled him to surge forward, away from it. Water and fire sprayed heavenward around him in a geyser, sending him blind and deaf and mute all at once. His shout of surprise was lost as his mouth filled with water.

The fire touched him . . . without actually _touching _him.

The demonic _chakra _within him saw to that.

Red _chakra _curled around him, forming a vortex of its own, catching the force of the bomb beneath him and dispersing it every which way in a rush of wind and shrapnel. He opened his mouth to shout again, realizing that Sasuke was standing on board the ship less than twenty feet away from him. He might be safe, but Sasuke would be hit . . .

The _chakra _curved sinuously around his body, warding off the decreasing shockwaves from the bomb. Naruto could've sworn he saw a flash of razor-sharp teeth, and the sly gaze of red eyes on him amid the maelstrom of fire and water. Sometimes he saw strange things, as if the demon were laughing at him.

"Stupid fox," he grumbled, lunging forward through the spray of sea-water.

Someone's hands shot through the fray, catching him by the arm and digging pale fingers into his skin.

Before Naruto could react, the hands gave a sharp tug, and he found himself stumbling forward into the clear air.

The grip relaxed and fell away, and he leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees and panting.

"Nice going, dip-shit," Sasuke snapped. "And _don't_ stop to rest; we need to regroup with the others."

Naruto straightened, rubbing salt water out of his eyes. The mist around them was beginning to clear, and a cold wind was blowing toward them from the south.

"Right," he agreed, squinting. "But where _are_ the others? I can't see a thing."

Sasuke's irritated expression softened a bit, and he gazed about him in seeming confusion as well.

"I can't either," he finally admitted. "I had to jump clear of the ship to avoid being hit by the shockwaves from that explosion. But it's clearing away. If we stay put, we might be able to move soon without charging blindly into danger."

"Hey, Sasuke, this water's hard to stand on," Naruto observed, looking down at his feet. They were sinking a little each time the ocean waves rose and fell beneath them.

"I know," Sasuke replied distractedly. "The sea's rougher here, and because the water's flow changes direction so quickly it's hard to keep the _chakra _molded so that we stay afloat." But he was looking at something in the mist, not at his feet. A dark shape appeared to be winging its way toward them through the fog. "That's Kakashi's messenger," he told Naruto, pointing. "There."

Naruto, who was busy shifting his weight from side to side to stay atop the surface, looked up to see where Sasuke was pointing. The Uchiha boy's feet had sunk ankle-deep into the water, but he didn't seem to care. The bird finally emerged from the veil of mist and circled once overhead before turning to fly back the way it had come.

"We follow it," Sasuke decided.

He took off after it at a run, with Naruto following close behind.

**oOo oOo oOo**

Kakashi, Shikyo and Sakura jumped ship as the last of the mist cleared. As they landed atop the water, Kakashi pulled a flare from his pack, lit it, and sent it shooting straight up into the sky. The wind carried it slantwise to the northwest, so that it burned brilliantly for a long while before arcing downward into the sea. A freezing wind whipped sea-spray so hard against the three _shinobi _that it stung.

Sakura lifted one arm to shield her face from it, peering up at the ship. As she watched it began to wheel about, preparing to leave them behind. From the helm on deck, she could see the captain waving at them.

The signal appeared to be enough for Kakashi; he turned away toward the south.

"We'll make for the cliffs," he told them, sliding the mask back over his Sharingan eye to protect it from the wind. Then he began to run.

Sakura squinted past him as she followed to see where they were going. The cliffs lay not far to their left, across a field of choppy water that ultimately crashed violently against the base of the rock.

"You intend to scale the cliffs?" Shikyo asked grimly, keeping pace. "There are none pursuing us . . . We might reach the rocks and then make for the nearest pass instead?"

Kakashi shook his head.

"Kakashi-_sensei, _Sasuke and Naruto are coming!" Sakura informed him. She had to yell to be heard over the howling wind.

Kakashi glanced sharply to his left as he ran, frowning as he caught sight of the two Genin dashing headlong across the water. Not far behind them, two other figures shot out of the mist and into the unsheltered waters of the Water Country's Southern Sea.

"They're being pursued," Shikyo observed darkly. His pace began to slacken; he was falling behind with the apparent intention of going to their aid.

"_Don't_ slow down," Kakashi ordered. The Jounin's feet, if anything, were moving faster across the water.

Sakura was having trouble keeping up with him; the ocean here was turbulent, swirling unpredictably and disrupting the flow of _chakra _pooling in her feet. She was beginning to wonder why on earth Kakashi had made the decision to bring them to thisparticular geographical location.

'_He couldn't possibly have chosen a more difficult route,' _she thought. She was alternately glancing back and forth between the four approaching them from the left and the dark cliffs rising ahead like walls, so high they disappeared into the clouds that blew over the low winds.

"Only two," Kakashi muttered, turning to look briefly at the group fast approaching them. This cryptic utterance was almost lost to the folds of his mask and the wind, but Sakura heard it. She had no idea what he meant; counting Naruto and Sasuke's pursuers there were _four. _

She stumbled, nearly tripping over a wave that rose in front of her like a trap. Kakashi caught her by the arm, giving her a sharp tug that practically sent her flying ahead of him.

"Climb," he told her, nodding toward the cliff face. "I'll see to Naruto and Sasuke."

Letting out a tense breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Sakura put on a surge of speed, heading for the harsh waters where ocean met rock. Shikyo followed close behind.

**oOo oOo oOo**

The winds were howling so fiercely around the two Genin that they were forced to shield their eyes with their arms, and they couldn't hear the splashing of their pursuers' feet behind them. Sasuke was the first to realize that they were being chased when he saw Kakashi sprinting toward them across the choppy sea. The Jounin was forming a seal as he ran, and he wasn't looking at either of his students. Sasuke rubbernecked, just in time to see the splash made by the two figures as they disappeared under the water.

Kakashi's expression darkened . . . or at least his one visible eye went narrow and steel-cold.

"Sasuke . . . Naruto . . . get to the cliffs," he called sharply. "I'll deal with these."

Wasting no time, the pair put on speed and rushed past him, now with a definitive goal.

Meanwhile, Kakashi had finished forming the seal.

Two towering _Suiton _sprang out of the sea. One of them carried with it the dark figure of a _shinobi. _Moving his arm in a swift arcing motion, Kakashi pantomimed slapping something with his palm down. The _Suiton _arced overhead just as swiftly, turning downward, until at last it slammed the man inside it full force into the surface of the ocean. The impact was brutal and hard, snapping the man's neck and spine like matchsticks. Kakashi paid the body no heed as it sank. Sinking into a crouch, he pulled down his mask, baring his Sharingan eye to pierce the depths of any technique his remaining enemy might fling at him from beneath the water.

A moment passed; then another.

The wind howled around him, and the waves rose and fell dizzyingly beneath his feet.

But the other attacker never surfaced.

Purely out of instinct, Kakashi sensed that he was alone.

Swiftly, he spun about, squinting against the lashing sea-spray to see what had become of his comrades. Sakura and Shikyo were already starting up the cliff face. Sasuke and Naruto were close behind, nearly to the rock. Kakashi could see that their passage was difficult the closer to the cliff they came, for the waves there around the crags jutting out of the sea were the most violent.

He could see nothing beneath the dark, seething waters that stretched between his comrades and the place where he stood, but he didn't need to. He knew very well the path the enemy had taken.

'_Let me get there in time,' _Kakashi prayed silently.

He made for the cliffs, at a run so swift his body blurred.

Even as he moved, he could see it wasn't enough.

**oOo oOo oOo**

"Shit!" Naruto swore. "I keep falling over!"

This was the third wave he'd stumbled over as it rolled underneath him, flowing forward to slam against the rocks they were trying to reach. He could scarcely see for all the water in his eyes.

He was beginning to feel he didn't like the ocean much anymore.

"We have to get over it to reach the cliff," Sasuke insisted, throwing himself forward but getting pushed back as the waves receded. He half-sank into a crouch as one ankle slipped beneath the water.

'_I can't make the jump from here to there,' _he calculated, eyeing the cliff beyond the wave breach with a scowl. _'I've used too much chakra for Chidori and the run over the sea it took to get here. There has to be another way . . . But how? Naruto must be out of chakra, too . . .' _He turned to his right.

Naruto was no longer there.

Sasuke straightened, eyes going wide in alarm.

"What the---?"

"_Oi_! Sasuke!"

He looked up, and his jaw dropped when he saw Naruto, clinging spider-like to the side of the cliff.

"Naruto?" he murmured. "How . . . ?"

"Jump!" Naruto called, motioning for him to hurry. "We have to climb!"

"_Keh,_" Sasuke scoffed, as if the jump he'd been considering impossible were actually a simple thing. He sank into a crouch, preparing to attempt it or die trying. The muscles in his legs tensed.

Clawed arms wrapped around his waist, catching him and pulling him back.

Sasuke plunged underwater. The claws, apparently attached to his enemy's hands as extensions of fingers, were serrated like the spines of sea urchins. Sasuke glanced down, squinting through the dark water, and saw that they were indeedspines like sea urchins' . . . growing out of a woman's hand. Greatly unnerved by this, Sasuke tried to reach for the _katana _he'd reinserted into the sheath across his back. It was then that he realized one of the spines was sticking through his sword-hand, pinning it to his thigh.

The cold water had numbed the initial pain, but now it came sharp and searing. He bit back a gasp, retaining enough presence of mind to know that his air supply would vanish with it if he did. Gritting his teeth, he took swift stock of the situation. If he moved his leg, the spine impaling him might sink further in and hit the femoral artery. If he moved his hand, the tendons might be damaged, and the hand might be rendered useless until a _shinobi _medic was acquired to fix it . . . which didn't seem likely if they were going to a city that hated _shinobi. _

His next plan of action was interrupted, however.

Above him, there came a hard impact on the water, and he felt his enemy's body flail beside him. The sea churned dark around him, too turbulent here for him to even be able to see his own blood. There came a sickening jolt, and the spine in his hand twisted. Expelling his air supply in a rush this time, he twisted his left arm back and drew his _katana_, no longer caring that the movement caused his impaled leg to move. He slashed quickly, but not quickly enough. The enemy's spine-blade retracted like a crab's leg, curling back into wherever it had emerged from. Sasuke's blade struck some kind of chitin-like armor that the woman wore strapped to her chest. Or maybe it _was _her chest; in the confusion Sasuke had no way of knowing. She let go of him, rising swiftly to the surface and springing above.

Sasuke followed her, intending to finish the job, but just as he broke the surface someone hauled him up roughly by the arms.

"Sasuke!" It was Naruto. There was no sign of the enemy.

"Let me go!" Sasuke snapped, springing to his feet atop the turbulent water. He happened to glance up the cliff, and saw the path that his enemy had taken. "Sakura!" he called. Then, wasting no time, he grasped Naruto's shoulders and used them to pull himself into a leap over the water. When he had reached the height of Naruto's head, he planted both feet on his comrade's back and catapulted off it as if Naruto were a springboard.

"Ow!" came the indignant shout from below him, but he was already flying through the air.

He landed solidly against the side of the cliff, gathering _chakra _in his hands to ensure his balance. Yet his jump had not taken him as high as he'd wanted. Tilting his head back, he saw the shadowy figure of the enemy running swiftly up the cliff face as if it were horizontal ground, making straight for Sakura. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke gathered his feet between his body and the rock and sprang into a run as well.

Behind him he could hear Naruto shouting, and the sound of his comrade's footfalls rapidly approaching, but he elected to ignore this. Reaching quickly into his pack with his uninjured hand, he withdrew his _shuriken _and let fly.

The three-fanned blade went hurtling upward, wailing as it spun and the ocean winds skimmed over it. It was aimed for the back of the enemy's neck. At the speed Sasuke had thrown it, it could easily take off the head of a normal man.

Yet the woman, possessing a _shinobi's _intuition, and at the last instant lunged sideways, dodging it. To his horror, Sasuke saw that it was now hurling toward Sakura, who was climbing the cliff with her back to it. In a flash he'd produced a _kunai _from the pouch at his thigh. Unthinkingly, he'd reached with his injured hand. Blood was smeared across the palm, and in throwing he let loose of the knife far sooner than he'd intended. It fell far short of the mark, and did not stop the _shuriken. _

A flash of longer blade came hurtling downward from above them both, striking the _shuriken _and deflecting it. The two weapons clashed in a shower of sparks, and both went wheeling downward into the sea far below. Sakura turned at the sound to see what had happened.

"Sasuke-_kun_?" she called. She was holding on to the cliff face with both feet and one hand, but she looked as if she might come down to meet him.

"Keep _climbing_!" a voice ordered sharply from above her.

It was Shikyo, who had thrown his _katana _to deflect the _shuriken. _The Rain ninja's sharp blue eyes scanned the cliff below him, taking in the sight of Sasuke and Naruto charging headlong up it, with Kakashi gaining on them from behind. Sasuke noted the direction of his gaze as he ran, and noticed that at this altitude parts of the cliff face were obscured by the rising ocean mists. The enemy had disappeared, possibly using the cloud cover to conceal herself.

Naruto finally caught up with him and passed him by, making straight for Sakura.

"Hey! Are you all right?" he hollered.

"Keep going!"

Sasuke glanced downward, and saw that Kakashi had caught up with him as well.

"Run, Sasuke," the Jounin ordered grimly. "No one stops until we reach the top and clear the mist."

Kakashi carried his _katana _in hand, and his Sharingan eye flashed crimson. Sasuke knew that he was scanning the surrounding mist for signs of _ninjutsu. _His own Sharingan eyes saw nothing.

He charged after his comrades.

Their enemy, it seemed, had disappeared, and now Kakashi's sole concern was speed.

**oOo oOo oOo**

What had started as a dash up the cliff turned into a journey far more arduous. Naruto hadn't thought the mountains were all that high at first, but that was because the low-hanging clouds obscured a good deal of the slope so that he couldn't see the top from the bottom. Now he found himself moving up what seemed like an endless slope leading into the sky itself. Fog brushed past his face like cold hands.

The five of them were no longer able to run, for the previous battle and the difficult sprint across the tossing sea had drained them of quite a bit of _chakra _as well as physical energy. Instead they were moving uphill in a peculiar sort of crawl, arms and legs crooked toward the rock face as they scuttled up it. Naruto, who probably had the best stamina out of any of them, was faring quite well, but he was running on very little sleep, and he had missed two meals. His companions suffered from a combination of this and waning _chakra_. Their faces and limbs streamed with cold sweat.

"How much higher does the damn mountain _go_?" Sakura finally asked. She was tired almost beyond the point of maintaining cyclic breathing, and was already beginning to pant as she climbed. She was also tired to the point where the Inner Sakura was starting to become the Outer Sakura.

Sasuke made no complaint about the ordeal, but from the narrow-eyed gaze he turned toward Kakashi Naruto could see he'd been thinking the same thing. Kakashi said nothing. He was bringing up the rear, and seemed more concerned with the surrounding fog than he was with his comrades' weariness. Shikyo, who was bringing up the front, glanced down at them over his shoulder. He had flung part of the blue mantle he wore about his neck and chin like a scarf to keep out the chill, and out of all of them he seemed the best acclimated to this sort of weather.

"We have just a little further to go," he told them. "I know this country. The Stone Walls---the southern cliffs---are miles high. They protect the island from the winds in the storm season." He cast a disapproving glance Kakashi's way. "Small ships don't dare round the coast because the Hinan Current draws them down to the glaciers in the south. They perish there if not rescued by larger freighters. Because of this there's no harbor on the southern coast, and no civilization until you breach the barrier of the mountains."

From the stern look in the Rain ninja's eye, it was obvious to all present what Shikyo thought of Kakashi's decision to round the coast. Having been impaled and nearly exploded, soaked to the skin and exhausted as he climbed the cliff through the freezing mist, Naruto was inclined to agree. If they'd stuck to the original plan, they could be sleeping in an inn of the northwestern harbor with full stomachs and dry clothes. But Kakashi, as always, seemed oblivious to their malcontent. In all fairness, Naruto figured the Jounin had some good reason for doing this. Namely, keeping them alive. So he bit back the complaints on his own lips and scaled the rock in silence.

"Sasuke, your hand . . ." Sakura had fallen back a little, and had just noticed the fact that Sasuke's hand was wrapped in one very blood-soaked strip of cloth, which he'd apparently torn from the bottom of the long-sleeved shirt he wore.

"My eye!" Naruto exclaimed from below. He squinted, rubbing at his left eye with his one free fist.

It seemed that Sasuke had another wound on his leg, which he had bound as well but the climbing had loosened the makeshift bandage so that blood ran in a thin line down his shin. It had just dripped onto Naruto's face as he followed Sasuke a bit too closely.

"Then don't follow _below _me, dumbass," Sasuke snapped. "Climb to one side. If we're attacked and someone above you falls . . ."

Naruto looked horrified.

"Then your ass is hitting _my _face!" he realized, aghast. He performed a hasty scuttling motion to the side.

"Sasuke, you're wounded?" Kakashi called from some ten feet below, finally sparing his team the attention he'd been previously devoting to scouting out enemies. "I can already see the top; the mist is clearing up there. Hold on a bit longer."

Sasuke, who now looked like he would "hold on" until the end of the world even if he bled to death, scowled and quickened his pace. He passed Sakura up, careful to keep the hand in question blocked from view with his body. Sakura watched him pass with a worried look, but didn't try to brave his displeasure by asking to help.

Naruto felt something cold touch his back, and let out a squawk. His comrades' attention, above and below, was instantly riveted upon him.

"Hush," Kakashi said sternly. Naruto relaxed, feeling stupid as he realized that the Jounin had merely laid a hand on the skin of his back. Kakashi's hands were freezing. It was then that Naruto realized just how much more his companions were affected by the chill than he was. If they all didn't find somewhere to warm up soon their extremities would go numb and that would make everything worse. But Kakashi didn't look like hypothermia was his most immediate concern. "I didn't realize you were wounded as well," the Jounin said quietly.

"I'm _not_," Naruto replied hastily, not about to be knocked down to Sasuke's level. He was so uniformly wet and cold that he'd scarcely noticed the two places in his shirt where the enemy's sickle-blades had torn through earlier. The skin on his back stretched tight as he climbed, making the twin wounds sting and burn, but the _chakra _of the Nine-Tails was doing its work. The long, cruel slashes had closed to the point where they only oozed a little blood now and then, to which he paid no more heed than the sweat dripping between his shoulder blades. Considering the fact that the wounds were healing nicely, Kakashi seemed unusually grim.

Naruto elected to quicken his climbing pace before the Jounin could elaborate on it. It was bad enough that he'd gotten a needle in the neck on the Aoite Road, started a fight at the inn, and gotten pulled overboard and separated from his team while rounding the coast. He figured it was time to stop calling attention to himself for a while before everyone started blaming him. Soon Naruto had passed Sakura up, drawing abreast of Sasuke. Sasuke pointedly avoided looking at him, which made Naruto a bit cross because he preferred a good sock in the face to the silent treatment. He was about to open his mouth to say something it probably wouldn't be wise to say when Shikyo's voice cut him off.

"Be silent, allof you. The enemy is there."

None of them could see Shikyo's face behind the cascade of damp blue hair clinging to the back of his neck, but it was plain that he was looking toward the top of the cliff, which they were now fast approaching. Kakashi, who still found himself flanking everyone, now gestured sharply toward the right.

"Everyone, form horizontal rank," he ordered sharply. "Gather _chakra _in your feet and run that way. We'll round the cliff southward. That will give us a direction of attack with the wind at our backs." His students nodded grimly, each of them knowing that this would only afford them a small advantage. Cold and hungry and exhausted though they were, they were about to fight for their lives yet again.

"Go," he bade them.

And they sprang into action.

Just as they did so, the bombs began to rain from above.

**oOo oOo oOo**

**Konoha**

_(One Day Earlier)_

Jiraiya listened to Morino Ibiki's story in full, and to Kakashi's, and when the tale was finished he sat in stunned silence. It was not what he had expected to hear. Yet in hearing it, his heart had lightened a bit as well, for now he understood.

"You seem relieved," Ibiki remarked, leaning back into his chair.

Jiraiya frowned a little, but then smiled faintly.

"I suppose I am," he admitted. "I see now why he chose to keep such a secret. And I see now why the Fourth allowed him to keep it."

Ibiki mirrored his smile; a wry and somewhat ungainly expression on so scarred a face.

"The Fourth made a lot of choices I will never understand," the Jounin remarked. "But of course it stands to reason that a wiser man than I became Hokage . . . and then gave it all up to die."

Jiraiya unclasped his folded hands.

"I find the Fourth's reasoning perfectly clear," he said, laughing softly. "He knew Hatake Kakashi best. And he had faith in the strength of both of them, knowing that Kakashi would never put his burdensome secret to use. It's no mystery to me."

The Sannin laid both palms flat on the table and rose to his feet.

"Well. I'm sorry to take up so much of your time. I go to speak with the Elders."

Ibiki nodded, and watched him go in silence.

**oOo oOo oOo**

**The Water Country, Ten Miles South of Mizutou**

They ran sideways through hell, covering their faces on the left side with out-flung arms and clothing alike. Fire exploded to their left, raining from the top of the cliff where the enemy launched its assault. Stone sprayed up at their feet, jolting their footing askance and making running difficult. The enemy was using their altitude advantage to the fullest. To their right, the howling winds of the Hinan Current lashed water hard against them. In one sense it was a godsend: it damped the flames from the bombs. In another, in quenching the flames it bred smoke, which stung their eyes and noses and disoriented them as they ran.

"We can't keep this up!"Shikyo shouted, unable to spare Kakashi a glance over his shoulder because he was too busy trying to keep his footing amid the flying debris. "We _must _cut upward _now_!"

"No!"Kakashi shouted back. "_Not_ here! I won't risk it!"

"Kakashi_-san!" _Shikyo snarled, lowering the arms shielding his face. _"_I will _not_ allow you to jeopardize this mission any further! We climb _now_ or we _die_!"

With that, the Rain ninja wheeled abruptly to the left and began a perilous dash straight up the slope. His teeth were gritted with the effort of sprinting up the rock face, but his fingers were already forming a seal in preparation to meet the enemy above. Rain gathered around him as he drew it with the _ninjutsu _he was working.

At the tail end of the group, Kakashi uttered a curse. His three students slowed up, gazing between Leaf and Rain Jounin in bewilderment, and also somewhat surprised because they'd rarely heard Kakashi swear. From the dark set of his brow, and from the way the clenching of his jaw was visible even beneath the mask, they could see that Kakashi was livid.

"Kakashi-_sensei_?" Sakura called. It was an inquiry. It meant, "What do we do now?"

"Keep running," the Jounin told them curtly. "There's a pass between the cliffs up ahead. Take that route inland."

Sasuke nodded.

"I see it," he said.

Obediently, he and Naruto surged forward with renewed speed, making for the shadow in the rock face that they could barely see through the smoke and fog. Sakura hung back a little despite the danger in slowing down.

"You're going to follow him?" she asked, nodding toward the dark figure of Shikyo, sprinting up the cliff above them.

Kakashi nodded agreement.

"He's under our protection," he answered somberly, "even though he's acted rashly. He's charging the enemy head-on because he thinks it'll buy us time to escape . . . or because he's leading us into a trap."

Having said this, he veered away from Sakura, chasing after Shikyo. Sakura's mouth fell open a little.

'_A trap?' _she thought. _'Does he mean Shikyo's betrayed us?'_

She wasn't given time to ponder this further, however, for at that instant several things happened at once. The cliff in front of her exploded, showering her with sharp fragments of rock. She flung up her arms in front of her face to shield it, dodging upward along the slope to avoid it. Thirty feet above her, Shikyo hurtled over the top and vanished from view. The streams of water that he'd been gathering as he ran surged over the top after him, and a split second later there came a tremendous explosion. Smoke billowed skyward. As he ran, Kakashi formed a seal at lightning speed, and lightning gathered in his palm. He scraped the crackling, twittering _Chidori _along the stone as he sprinted, generating friction to increase its magnitude. He left a long runnel behind him, etched into the mountain. If he was fortunate, and if his mistrust of Shikyo was unfounded, then he would be able to use the _jutsu _to kill several of the enemies lining the ridge before the molded _chakra _waned. If not . . . then Shikyo would be the first to die.

**oOo oOo oOo**

The other two members of Team Seven hadn't gone terribly far before one of them noticed something amiss.

"Hey, Sasuke, where's Sakura-_chan_?" Behind them, there came another explosion; one that set the mountain rumbling.

Despite their orders, both boys now skidded to a halt, turning upright and clinging to the rock face as they glanced behind them. They saw Kakashi just cleared the uppermost ridge, and disappeared from view. They saw smoke billowing somewhere beyond the ridge, with flashes of fire in illuminating its furrows to show that the battle wasn't finished. They saw smoke billowing from various places on the cliff-side, where the bombs had fallen.

What they couldn't see was Sakura.

"It's the clouds!" Naruto shouted, squinting against the blowing rain. "The wind is pushing them up to the cliffs!"

Sasuke's Sharingan eyes narrowed as he scanned the fog-obscured slope.

"It's not _genjutsu_," he observed. "Those are real clouds. But . . . it may not be the wind doing this."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Mist Ninja?" he guessed. "I remember Zabuza did something like---"

Sasuke grabbed him by the sleeve and started up the slope.

"No time for thinking," he said shortly. "We have to get to higher ground. Look; it's rising under us!" He pointed downward with his injured hand even as he dragged Naruto upward with him. The pale gray clouds were indeed rising up the cliff below them, rolling steadily toward them. "If we're caught in that, we may find ourselves ambushed."

The two boys dashed upward, fighting gravity. By this time their muscles were burning with exertion, and their feet ached fiercely. Their training had never required that they maintain _chakra _in their feet for this long, and even Naruto's near-inhuman stamina was faltering.

They were running upward, but they were also veering back toward the point where they'd separated from Kakashi, in the hopes of catching sight of their third teammate.

**oOo oOo oOo**

To Sakura, it was like going blind, deaf and mute all at once. Mist closed in around her like a wet blanket, graying out her vision and damping her hearing. She heard her own breath coming in choked gasps, but she couldn't bring herself to call for help.

'_Stay calm,' _she told herself, drawing the _katana _slowly from its holster across her back so that the noise wouldn't alert the enemy to her precise location. _'It's mist. I can't see them, but they can't see me, either . . .'_

She could hear the sound of a woman's breathing somewhere nearby. She couldn't have pinpointed exactly _how _she knew it was a woman. There was just a certain lightnessto the sound that told her instincts it was so. She knew whom it was, too.

'_The woman with the spines, who pulled Sasuke under.' _

The woman who had skittered crab-like up the slope like it was nothing, vanishing into the mist.

Carefully, Sakura drew the sword into a defensive position with her right hand, steadying herself against the cliff with her left. _'So long as I keep hold of the rock, I won't become disoriented . . .' _For once she was eminently grateful that she was clinging to a vertical stone drop; gravity would also orient her as to which way to flee. And the fog would keep her from freaking out whenever she happened to look down.

The breathing came nearer. Sakura's eyes darted to and fro, frantically searching for some hint of a shadowed shape. There was nothing. Sakura held her breath.

'_She'll have to clear the mist to attack me,' _Sakura reasoned. _'Otherwise she's as blind as I am. But I can't run, or the movement will tell her where I am . . .'_

There was no way out of this but to lie in wait, and to kill.

Killing was not easy even in the heat of _battle_. The blood spurt; the death rattle.

The horror.

But to kill while lying in _wait_ was . . . Sakura let out a small, shaky, breath.

The shadow moving stealthily behind her whipped around, catching the sound. Dark blades cut through the fog, slashing cruelly. One caught Sakura in the side, but it was only a glancing blow. Sakura spun, lashing out with her own blade without letting go of the rock. She felt the edge strike something hard, peculiarly like chopping wet lumber.

Then she realized her mistake.

The woman's other hand clasped hold of her _katana _by the blade, heedless of its sharpness against her palm. She now knew _exactly _where Sakura was. And the mist was clearing.

But now Sakura knew exactly where her _enemy _was. Both the woman's hands were in plain view, engaged in slashing at her. Even as she became preoccupied in dodging these vicious attacks, Sakura realized that this meant the woman's only connection to the cliff face was through the _chakra _in her feet. Her _feet . . ._

The _katana _was wrenched from Sakura's grasp and flung downward.

Sakura let go of the cliff with her left hand and drew the other _katana _she carried. As one of the spines lengthened and extended from the woman's wrist, the woman stabbed downward with it, seeking to impale Sakura's head against the rock. Instead the saw-toothed edge grazed Sakura's right ear, ramming into the stone. And Sakura pistoned her body perpendicular to the cliff face, slicing low with the _katana. _

The scream that followed was one that Sakura would never forget. There are many such memories in a ninja's life that she will never be able to wipe clean from her slate. This was one of Sakura's first. It was a woman's scream; a young woman's. With it the horrid crack of bone, or chitin. Either way, the blow had struck home. The impact jarred Sakura's wrist painfully, but she didn't release the sword. Suddenly finding herself thrown off-balance with no purchase for her wounded feet, the enemy hung by the spine she had jammed into the stone. The mist cleared, and Sakura saw where hand clung to stone. With a breath very much like a sob, she brought her _katana _up to bear and clove downward.

The mist cleared. Gray eyes, human as her own, stared widely into hers, maddened with the inevitability of death. Then the face fell away, and somersaulting as it went. The hand fell after.

Her breath coming harsh and cold, Sakura turned and sprinted up the slope.

**oOo oOo oOo**

Kakashi was being forced steadily toward the edge of the cliff. He knew it simply by the grim purpose on his enemies' face. All but three dead, Shikyo nowhere in sight, and himself nearly out of _chakra. _This was not ideal.

Low on _chakra, ninjutsu _was hardly an option. Reaching swiftly into a pouch in his vest while his opponents caught their breath, he withdrew a soldier pill and swallowed it. He'd been saving the soldier pills solely for his team as a whole, but he was about to die and he would have to use his now.

Almost immediately upon swallowing it he felt his strength returning. It felt like fire surging through his veins. It would be enough, for one final _Chidori . . ._

Lightning gathered around his fist. He prepared to charge.

His enemies' attention was suddenly diverted by the person who'd just crested the ridge behind him.

"Kakashi-_sensei_!" Sakura cried in alarm.

One of the enemy chose to rush at her, forming a seal for what Kakashi vaguely recognized as a water-blade _jutsu. _Moving so fast his body blurred, he moved to intercept the attack.

The attack was a feint. The _shinobi _flung an exploding tag at him. At such close range, all he could do was back away just enough so that it would not touch him.

The blast completely unearthed him, sending him flying. Stunned, he was only dimly aware of Sakura bracing herself to intercept him; to break his fall. He wanted to shout a warning to her, a warning that he would hit her too hard. But it had happened too fast, and he struck her before the words reached his lips. The impact was bone-wrenching, and his vision filled with black stars.

Together they plummeted backward, over the edge.

**oOo oOo oOo**

When Naruto and Sasuke reached the top, they found only dead men, lying strewn about like someone's careless mess. Some of them were in pieces. Swallowing back nausea, Sasuke moved to the edge to peer over, searching for signs of others on the cliff face. He saw no one.

A hand clamped down firmly on Naruto's shoulder.

"We must go quickly," Shikyo informed them. His voice was harsh, and his blue eyes rimmed red from smoke.

Sasuke turned away from the edge.

"Kakashi," he said.

Shikyo turned away from them both, wearing a frown.

"I don't know. But remember his orders. We've been separated. We reconvene in the Water-Lord's city."

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged glances. Neither was keen on this. But they trusted Kakashi's orders, and so they followed Shikyo northward.

**oOo oOo oOo**

**Two Hours Later**

Sakura lay half-submerged in the wet sand with her face turned to the side. Her neck ached fiercely, but she had no strength to lift her head. Her eyes cracked open, crusted with salt. Kakashi lay beside her, unmoving.

'_Dead?' _she wondered, in dim despair. One of his arms was flung over hers; perhaps he'd managed to drag them both to shore? But what shore? And how long . . . ? She remembered falling . . .

There were feet moving softly over the sand beside her. But they were on her left, and she could not turn her head to see. Thinking that it might be an enemy, she closed her eyes and held her breath.

Someone spoke, sounding as if he were looking down at them. A man's voice; unfamiliar.

"The Mist did this?"

Another voice; an older man's. Also unfamiliar.

"So it would seem. They suspect our aim, so they kill those we seek to use against them."

A sigh. Feet receding. Consciousness fading.

A drift of voice as she sank into darkness.

"A waste. But two still remain. The Uchiha and the other. After all, to ignite this war, we really only need_ one _. . ."

**oOo oOo oOo**

**Nine Hours Later; Ten Miles North of the Southern Coast**

The city of stone was unlike anything they had ever seen before. The three weary travelers paused at its gates to rest a moment, waiting for the gatekeepers to grant permission. Each stone was veined with marble, and each peaked rooftop painted blue. Even in the wan morning light breaking over the cliffs behind them, they could see that the walls were white.

"Beautiful," Shikyo remarked gravely to his two silent companions. "The Jewel of the Sea."

With the grinding of massive cogs, the great gates swung open.

"Welcome to Mizutou," he murmured as they resumed walking, passing beneath arches of stone. "From here you are no longer _shinobi. _Remember that. If the Mist learn of your presence here, you risk war with them. For Konoha's sake, if not your own, see that you don't forget yourselves."

Behind them, the gates clanged shut.

**End of Chapter 5**

Yamisui: I think this one broke my brain. Ow. This stands as the longest action sequence I've Ever written in one chapter. Action sequences are Hard to write, let me tell you.


	6. Arrest! The Heikou Web

_Author's Note: A "kunoichi" is a female ninja. "Dojutsu" refers to bloodline limit traits that allow grant special abilities to the eyes. Examples include the Uchiha Sharingan, or the Hyuuga Byakuugan. _

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**o o Chapter 6: Arrest! The Heikou Web o o**

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

**The Water Country, Thirty Miles South of Mizutou**

She awoke more gently this time, though the air was colder. The sea was lapping gently over her body, submerging her in salt water up to her neck before receding back down the sloping shore. Her clothes were sopping wet and very heavy. However, the tide didn't draw her out with it, because she was half-buried in sand. Carefully, she pushed herself into a sitting position, spitting grit out from between her lips. If she'd lain there unconscious any longer she might eventually have smothered.

Kakashi lay a little further up the bank from her now, still unmoving.

With a little cry of dismay, Sakura crept over to him on her hands and knees. The movement was difficult; she was exhausted. Her head ached terribly, so badly that she felt nauseous. This was, in its own way, a small mercy, for she didn't feel the ache in her empty belly because of it. However, her throat was parched, and she felt as if she could sleep for days.

Kakashi lay on his side, white hair plastered against his forehead. From what Sakura could see, he didn't appear grievously injured. There was dried blood on his back in places, and on his right side the vest he wore hung in shreds. But he might have internal injuries that she didn't know about, or he might be out of _chakra. _She could understand that. She was low on _chakra _herself.

She laid a hand on his back and tried shaking him.

"Kakashi-_sensei,_" she said loudly. _"Sensei!_"

He didn't budge. However, she noticed as she laid a hand on him that his back was rising and falling, which meant he was definitely alive.

A cold wind swept over them, and the tide washed over them soon after.

Sakura rose into a kneeling position, pulling her sodden jacket more tightly around her thin shoulders. Fortunately, the plainclothes she'd selected to wear before boarding the ship in the Wave Country were designed for warm weather. She was wearing her jumper, but underneath it she wore long pants, and over it she wore a gray jacket she'd borrowed from her mother's closet. As the tide receded, she stared out across the horizon, wondering what to do. She had no way of knowing what time of day it was; the clouds rolling in from the south made gauging the sun's position nigh impossible.

Numbly, she tried to think back on Kakashi's teachings, and on the Academy's. Neither amounted to much. They taught you how to survive when your enemies were hurling bombs at you, and how to kill by hurling back _jutsu _of your own. What they _didn't_ teach you was what to do when you washed up God-knows-where with no map and no fresh water, with your _sensei _half-dead beside you and you half-dead yourself.

"_Ninjas need to think beyond the normal."_

Well, right now the _normal _was vastly more important than what lay beyond it.

Sakura stopped bothering to try and reason her way out of this. Hooking her elbows underneath Kakashi's shoulders, she rose onto her knees and lifted him as she stood. Standing was veryhard. Her head reeled. Yet somehow, she managed to half-carry, half-drag him up the sloping sand-bank and deposit him on drier ground. She collapsed to her knees again on the grass, panting; Kakashi was heavier than he looked.

Once again, she found herself taking stock of the situation. Under other circumstances she might have panicked, like the time Sasuke was wounded in the Forest of Death. But right now she was simply too exhausted for hysteria.

Both she and Kakashi were still wearing their sandals, which would be fortunate indeed once they set off toward Mizutou again. However, neither had their packs, which meant they lacked dry clothes, weapons, and medical supplies as well as food and fresh water. Sakura no longer had any weapons on her, though by some miracle Kakashi's _katana _was still strapped firmly to his back. From the appearance of the sky, a storm was headed straight for them. They needed rest before they could move on, and they would need some sort of shelter in order to rest.

There was a good-sized boulder some ten feet inland. Drawing in a deep breath, Sakura lifted Kakashi again and dragged him across the grass. She laid him down behind the rock, which would hopefully provide shelter from the ocean winds. Above and around them stood a grove of palm trees; the ground was littered with fronds. She gathered these with one hand, piling them on top of Kakashi's body in the hopes of keeping the warmth in and the imminent rain out. Her other hand she kept clapped to her side; all this movement had caused the wound from the Mist _kunoichi's _spine to begin seeping blood again. It stung viciously; it was crusted with salt.

Sakura dragged more fronds behind the sheltering boulder for herself, and then she removed the _katana _from Kakashi's back. This she used to cut several long strips from the lower part of her jumper, which she used to form a crude compress over the wound. It was the best she could do, considering. She might have endured the pain of cauterization if she'd had a clean knife and a match to light a fire to heat the blade, but she had neither. Sakura flopped down onto her makeshift bed beside Kakashi, pulling the palm fronds over her shoulders. If she was lucky, the bleeding would stop on its own. If not, then she probably wouldn't wake up again.

At this point, exhaustion made the choice for her.

Despite the throbbing in her side, she slept.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

**Mizutou, Water Country**

Naruto was all eyes as they started down the city streets, constantly rubbernecking, until finally Sasuke kicked him in the shin with the back of his heel.

"Be _inconspicuous, _idiot," he muttered under his breath. "We're supposed to try and fit in here."

Naruto squinted at his teammate with sudden shrewdness.

"Right_. You're_ full of stab wounds, and _I _have no shoes and practically no shirt. We look like something's chewed us up and spit us out. But if I just stop looking _around_ no one will notice."

Shikyo, too, was looking worse for wear. His bluish hair, bound up behind his head, was looking rather singed at the ends, as were his clothes. The circles beneath his eyes were very dark and deep.

"Quiet, both of you," he admonished. "We're almost there . . ."

"Almost _where_?" Naruto asked, but abruptly the Rain ninja took off at an even brisker pace, and the two of them hurried to keep up.

"Ah, here" Shikyo said, turning a corner and heading straight for what looked like some kind of barracks. "You will both remain silent. I will do the talking here. The Heikou may try to question you, but if they do you will recall the story I gave you en route from the southern cliffs." He paused, and then added as an afterthought, "They'll believe you; you're both utterly guileless, and you're quite obviously _children . . ._"

"Asshole," Naruto mouthed as the Rain ninja led them into the barracks. Sasuke's expression was utterly deadpan, but this time he neglected to kick Naruto for his remark.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

When Sakura awoke this time, she felt as if she were floating. Her first awareness was of the cold wind brushing beneath her bare toes, and across the back of her neck. Then she became aware that the rest of her, by contrast, was quite warm. Her eyes drifted open, and she realized that the tickling sensation on her forehead was Kakashi's unruly hair, sticking out from beneath his _hitae ate _at the back of his head. He was carrying her piggy-back style; her cheek was pressed into his grey-clad shoulder. Her side throbbed dully.

"Kakashi-_sensei_?" she murmured, lifting her head to peer ahead of them. "How . . . ? Where are we?"

"Try not to move," he advised without looking back at her. "When we reach Mizutou, I'll take you straight to a hospital before anything else. You did well to do as much for both of us as you did; dragging us inland for shelter."

Sakura's face fell. She was embarrassed that he was now having to save her twice.

"None of this is your fault," Kakashi told her, as if reading her mind. "You did well. But this mission is . . ." His voice broke off, and he swiftly changed topics. "Are you hungry?"

"Mmm." Sakura nodded faintly.

The Jounin let go of one of her arms and reached into a pocket of his vest. He pulled out what appeared to be a white strip of meat, which he then offered to her over his shoulder. She stared at it.

"Crab," Kakashi explained. "Raw, and definitely fresh."

Sakura's mother rarely bought crab; it was expensive. She laughed a little; it seemed odd to be offered such a delicacy _now. _

Kakashi apparently misinterpreted her laughter for shock-induced hysteria.

"We'll reach a hospital soon," he promised, sounding concerned.

"S'alright, _Sensei,_" she told him vaguely, and then took the crab from him with her teeth. "Itsh _good_."

But it was incredibly salty as well, and no sooner had she swallowed it than she realized she was parched. Her head ached with dehydration. Kakashi seemed to know instinctively that this would be the case. Presently he set her down for a rest, drawing a small canteen out of another pocket.

"Rainwater," he explained as he held it up to her lips. "We're lucky it rained; there wouldn't be any fresh water otherwise." A pause, and then he added, "And we're lucky the side of my vest with the canteen wasn't torn."

"Kakashi-_sensei,_" Sakura murmured, when he'd settled back onto his heels with the canteen. "I heard something strange, I think. When we were lying on the beach."

He said nothing, waiting for her to continue.

"Two men were there, talking," she went on. Kakashi's eye narrowed with concern at the words "two men." "They thought we were dead, so they left us alone. Or maybe they just didn't care, because they never checked?" This part confused her.

"Go on," Kakashi urged, leaning forward.

"They said that we were attacked by the Mist Ninja," Sakura murmured. "But they sounded as if the Mist were their enemies. I think . . . whoever they were . . . they know something about the assassins who're after the Water-lord. They seemed certain that the Mist didn't want us to reach Mizutou."

Kakashi lowered his head, scratching his neck.

"I see. And was anything else said?"

Sakura's brow creased with worry, though this made the headache worse.

"I don't think these men were on our side, either. I think they're dangerous. They want to use us. . .and they know about Naruto and Sasuke. They said it wasn't a problem if we were dead, because 'only one is needed to start a war.' Whatever that means . . ." She looked up at Kakashi, who was frowning down at his hands, which were resting on his knee. "There won't _be _a war . . . will there?" A horrible thought had suddenly occurred to her. "We haven't been sent here to _start _a war, have we?"

"_No,"_ Kakashi replied, a bit too sharply. Then he realized his sharpness, and repeated in softer tones, "No." Then he smiled reassuringly at her, and began to rise. "We should keep moving. I want to reach Mizutou quickly."

Sakura, despite her physical discomfort, was now beginning to worry that the Jounin might be keeping something from his Genin. But Kakashi picked her up as gently as he could, and didn't say another word on the matter. Before she could work up the nerve to question him further, she fell asleep on his shoulder.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

**Mizutou**

As it turned out, the Heikou barracks into which Shikyo led his two young charges were all but empty. He led Sasuke and Naruto through a long series of rooms lined with _tatami _mats and various shelves full of stored weaponry.

"An armory," Sasuke observed quietly, studying them as he walked past.

Most of the weapons were swords; ordinary _katana _like the one Sasuke carried. Looking at them, Naruto felt the urge to steal one. He was the only one of the three who'd been disarmed in the battle by the sea. As if reading his mind, Shikyo shook his head.

"_Not yet," _he mouthed.

As it turned out, there was currently only one member of the Heikou stationed there; a man who was rather on the fat side, with gin blossoms and extra chins dangling from his jaw. Sasuke and Naruto stared. The Heikou, who carried two swords at his rather side, wore a blue _haori hakama _identical to Shikyo's, except for the considerable size. He had very watery blue eyes, and a very red, bulbous nose.

"Kneel," Shikyo bade the two Genin.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged glances, but obeyed without question. They were supposed to be ordinary apprentices in swordsmanship; Shikyo's apprentices, whom he'd taken with him on a mission to escort a noble of the Stone Country to conduct business with the Water-lord. Now they were returning, and were to stay in the palace so that Shikyo could return to his duties as Lord Garyu's bodyguard. They listened patiently as the Rain Ninja poured out this story to the Heikou warrior, who listened to Shikyo speak with an expression of unmistakable distaste.

Finally, he waved the matter of Shikyo's alibi aside with one thick-fingered hand.

"Our skeleton crew is watching the walls," he said. "Most of our numbers have gone to the palace. You're to go as well. There's been another attempt on Garyu-_sama's _life."

Shikyo, who had been crouching before the Heikou captain with one fist planted on the floor as he recounted his false story, now straightened, sitting on his knees. Something about the rigidity of his posture warned Naruto and Sasuke to remain as they were, heads bowed.

"Were any caught?" Shikyo asked sharply.

The captain grunted, shaking his massive head.

"If you want information, speak with Moritome-_sama. _But you've said your piece, and I've said mine. Get the hell out of my barracks."

This time both Naruto and Sasuke's heads snapped up. They stared at the captain in surprise. He wasn't joking; he was glaring down at Shikyo in distaste. He looked as if he wanted to kick him. Yet instead he turned away, stalking off down the hall with his thick hands clasped officiously behind his back. Shikyo rose to his feet in silence, and the two Genin scrambled to theirs. The Rain ninja turned to them with a face as calm and keen-eyed as ever.

"Come," he bade them. "We'll go to the palace."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

It was a long walk through the city. The streets were old and winding, and narrow, as Kakashi had warned. Sasuke surveyed the mazelike network of stone walls and gated houses with cool appraisal. Meanwhile, Naruto's head was still reeling with shock at the reception they'd received from the Heikou captain. He had once been looked at like he was diseased, or cursed, because he bore the Kyuubi within him. The Heikou captain's hatred for them was just as apparent, but somehow worse. He had looked at them as if he thought they were less than human, simply by the fact of their existence.

As if their lives were only worth what use he could make of them.

Naruto's face must have registered his sourness, because Shikyo finally remarked on it.

"You've never seen that before, have you? You've been living in a Village _built _for our kind, cushioned in the acclaims your fellow _shinobi _give you . . . where you never learned that a mission can mean serving those who hate you. Well, this is not Konoha. This is the world."

Both Genin were staring at him in amazement by this time, but he only turned away and said, "The palace is _there_," pointing.

As he had indicated, they rounded a corner and came upon a large, ornately carved gate. It looked to be carved from good steel; there was no rust on it and it shone in the morning sun. Its spikes ended in blades, like spear-heads. The stone walls themselves were carved from marble with curious blue veins flowing through it. The place beyond these looked very rich indeed.

Two Heikou stood guard at the gate.

As Shikyo approached, they turned hostile stares his way. Both were men who looked to be in their mid-forties, but unlike the captain in the barracks these were lean and muscular. When it became clear that Shikyo intended to pass them by, their blades cleared their sheathes and flashed upward, forming a cross to bar the way. Naruto gasped, and Sasuke drew back, startled.

'_These guys aren't slouches,' _Naruto thought, blinking. _'They move their swords like shinobi.' _Where the folds of their blue _haori _parted, he could see muscles knotted with tension.

Shikyo, in the meantime, held his ground unflinchingly, though they held their _katana _crossed inches in front of his nose.

"Let me pass," he said quietly. "Where are the Elite, who usually guard the palace gates?"

"Dispatched on a mission," one of the guards replied coldly. He kept his keen, blue eyes trained forward as he spoke. Neither man moved to lower the _katana._

"Dispatched," Shikyo repeated slowly. "A mission. Dispatched to _where_?"

The two guards remained silent.

Impatiently, the Rain ninja shook his head.

"I _will _pass," he told them.

Still they kept their eyes trained forward and their blades crossed.

But one of them said, "In this most recent attempt on Garyu-_dono's _life, the _shinobi _technique you call 'Crimson Blossom' was used." He spoke coldly and mechanically, as if any form of personal interaction with Shikyo was disgraceful to him. "Two men are dead. One is the lord's double. The other was the assassin. But from blood work, my lord's researchers have determined that the man was not from the Mist. He possessed a particular bloodline limit held only by the Shirogane Clan."

This particular bit of news seemed to alarm Shikyo even more than the blades in front of his face. His quiet, stern demeanor fell away like a mask cut loose.

"What? _What? _You dare accuse the _Rain _of this attack? The _Rain, _whose village does not even lie on this _continent_?"

"He is not accusing your Clan, Arashi Shikyo; he is accusing _you_."

The three heads of the travelers' turned toward the newcomer, approaching the gate from the inside. The guards remained as they were. Naruto peered around Shikyo and saw a tall, rather dignified looking man approaching. His hair was black with streaks of gray at the temples, and he had very deep-set blue eyes and a strong, chiseled face. He wore the Heikou raiment, but also a braided cord across his chest that looked as if it had threads of silver interwoven with thicker strands of green silk.

"Step away from the gate, and lower your hands," he bade Shikyo, "or I will definitely arrest you."

"Moritome-_sama_," Shikyo acknowledged, inclining his head respectfully. "How recent was this attempt on the Water-lord's life? I have been in the Fire Country, escorting Konoha _shinobi _here on Garyu-_sama's _own orders. I could not possibly be suspect."

Both Genin standing behind the Rain ninja were completely floored. After all that stern lecturing about them keeping their identities a secret, here Shikyo was blowing their cover just to get in the palace's front _gate. _And now the Heikou officer was eyeing them speculatively.

"These are Konoha _shinobi_?" he asked. Naruto bristled, but then the officer went on to say, "The blond one has very blue eyes, which are common among the Rain and the Mist. I demand proof that these two are from _Konoha._" A pause, and then he added pointedly, "And even if they produce _hitae ate _with the Leaf insignia I will _not _consider it proof."

Naruto glanced to his right, trying to catch Sasuke's eye. In his mind, the only way to keep from starting a fight with the very people who had hired them was to let Shikyo take the fall while he and Sasuke pretended to be ordinary children. That way it would look like the Rain ninja had merely kidnapped them, to bring them along as props for his story. Shikyo would be arrested, and he and Sasuke would leave and try to find Kakashi. Kakashi would know what to do.

It wasn't the most sensible of plans, but then Naruto wasn't exactly the most sensible of ninjas.

Shikyo, on the other hand, soon arrived at a much more feasible conclusion.

"Well," he said, turning toward them. "Step forward, please . . . _Uchiha_ Sasuke. I believe a demonstration is in order."

Wordlessly, Sasuke stepped forward and blinked, and a split-second later the Sharingan wheeled red in his eyes.

Shikyo turned back to face the Heikou again, wearing an unsmiling look of satisfaction.

"You will not find the Sharingan _dojutsu _in any other bloodline limit," he said quietly. "Certainly not among the Rain, or the Mist."

Sasuke was frowning; it was obvious he didn't like being used in this way, and Naruto didn't blame him. It was probably yet another reminder that Sasuke was the only one who survived the Uchiha massacre, as if he needed one.

But the demonstration had served its purpose. Slowly, the Heikou officer nodded. He motioned to the guards, and they stepped aside, pulling the gate open. Moritome also stepped aside as Shikyo and the two Genin filed past him. His gaze was still sharp, but it was no longer accusing. He seemed very worried about something.

"Regardless of your sound alibi, Shikyo-_san, _the fact remains that it was a member of _your_ Clan that attacked our lord. This changes things significantly." He paused, glancing sidelong at Shikyo to make sure the Rain ninja had caught his meaning. "It may be that the Mist have actually formed an alliance with the Rain . . ."

"Improbable," Shikyo interrupted. "The Mist Village's power is formidable, and its numbers great. There would be no need to ally itself with a Village as small as the Rain. . .especially when the Rain's relations with Konoha are not favorable. The Mist hold a very uneasy truce with the Leaf as it is; it would be foolish to associate themselves with a Village of Konoha's enemies."

Again Moritome nodded.

"I thought so, too," he replied. "That was where I stopped drawing conclusions and started speculating. I believe . . . there is some conspiracy afoot here. Of all ten assassination attempts over the past month, only three assassins were actually caught . . . and those three were all dead. Two of those dead _shinobi _displayed obvious signs of death by the Crimson Blossom technique. The first one you know of; it happened when you were present. The first one of these was identified as a Mist ninja, by the Mist themselves. They sent a team of their policing force to aid in the investigation. The first assassin, as it turned out, was a missing-_nin, _gone from their Village for five years."

Naruto wracked his brains, trying to recall what he knew about missing-_nin. _He didn't know much. He knew that Orochimaru was one, and so were a lot of Orochimaru's henchmen. Then he thought of Zabuza, who had somehow gone from a sword group member in the Mist to a freelance assassin in the Wave Country. He hadn't failed to miss the fact that most missing-_nin _were bad eggs.

"The third assassin was also killed by the Crimson Blossom," Moritome went on. "We sent messenger-birds to the Rain immediately. The returned report is that Shirogane Kazuna was _also _a missing-_nin, _gone from _your _Village for three years."

"And the second?" Shikyo pressed. "The second assassin was _not _a missing-_nin_?"

Moritome's brow furrowed.

"The second killer was a missing-_nin _from the Mist. But he was not killed by the _Shinkuhana. _He died from a pressure point strike to the upper back."

Shikyo shook his head in disbelief.

"That is---"

"The assassin's lung burst from the inside out," Moritome told him grimly. "It was definitely the work of a _shinobi; _it was precise _taijutsu. _That man had accomplices with him. According to Garyu-_sama, _he had already killed the two Heikou guards, but when it came to the final _jutsu, _he lost his nerve. And his accomplices killed him. Yet this setback bought the Water-lord time to react, and the guards outside his door burst in. The two accomplices fled, leaving their dead comrade behind."

Slowly, Shikyo nodded.

"I see," he said. "But I don't want to remove the blame yet from where we originally believed it lay. Don't you think it odd that the Mist were so quick to respond in each case? Doesn't it look like, in declaring the killers 'missing-_nin_,' the Mist are trying too hard to deny connection between them?"

Moritome was silent for a bit. He lowered his head, pressing his lips together as if mulling over a very delicate subject.

"These weren't just any missing-_nin,_" he finally said, speaking quietly in a way that was evidently meant to exclude the guards at the gate behind them. "We were forced to use blood work to identify them because they carried no _hitae ate _at _all_. Do you _understand _what that means, Arashi Shikyo?"

The eyes of both Genin were trained on Shikyo's back, awaiting his answer, but in the end the Rain ninja gave no explanation.

'_He understands what this guy means, all right,' _Naruto thought, frowning. _'But it looks like it's something he wants to keep from us.'_

The Heikou officer clasped both hands behind his back, looking grim. As the two adults conferred, they had been crossing a long courtyard with Naruto and Sasuke following close behind. Now they crossed a small stone footbridge arching over a _koi _pond and ascended a series of wide stone steps. At the top of these stairs, they could see through a wide arch-way the main courtyard of the palace grounds, boxed in by the palace itself. Moritome paused at the top of these stairs, laying an authoritative hand against Shikyo's shoulder.

"I'm afraid I can't allow you near Garyu-_sama _unless you bring with you the _shinobi _with whom this contract was actually forged," he said. "Our lord told me personally that you were sent to Konoha, and I can see that you have returned with Konoha _shinobi, _but you must understand that we can't simply allow you to roam free without concrete verification . . ."

"Hatake Kakashi was separated from us," Shikyo interrupted impatiently, "along with the third member of his team. We came here hoping to reconvene with him; that was what we agreed upon if these circumstances arose. But you can't seriously expect me to abstain from reporting to our lord until he arrives! It could be _days . . . _days in which more attacks may follow, and Garyu-_sama _will have no _shinobi _to guard him."

Briefly, Moritome's conciliatory demeanor slipped, and he fixed Shikyo with a sudden glare.

"The Heikou will guard him," he said curtly.

There was a tense pause. Then, perhaps with a bit too much of a delay, Shikyo nodded.

"Of course."

Moritome's sharp expression remained.

"I'm sorry, but I will have to place the three of you under house arrest. To the best of our knowledge, the three of you are the only _shinobi _in Mizutou at this time, and we are trying to identify anyone in the city who possesses _shinobi _abilities. It would be best for the purposes of our investigation if you were kept under surveillance, where no one will be able to connect you to the events unfolding here . . . until your leader, who signed the contract, may verify formally that you are innocent."

Naruto stared at the Heikou officer standing atop the stair, struck by sudden realization.

'_He's saying he thinks Shikyo-san killed Kakashi-sensei!'_

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but Sasuke kicked him again. He turned to glare at his teammate, but the dark-haired Genin merely shook his head quietly. Naruto shut his mouth; he knew that look in Sasuke's eye. It meant he had a plan.

Without further protest, the Rain ninja allowed Moritome to lead them into the courtyard and along yet another stone terrace. They entered the palace itself, turning down a long series of narrow halls, and then crossing a series of smaller courtyards until they came upon a new set of buildings. These were low and simple, like the barracks, but they were far more open and airy. Half the outer walls were made of simple screens and sliding wood panels, most of which were open. Squinting, Naruto saw that these rooms had wood floors, and were quite bare, but he couldn't be sure because he only caught a passing glimpse.

They crossed one final courtyard at the center of all this, mounted a wooden terrace, and slid aside the wooden panels leading into one of the rooms. There were already guards standing on either side of the doorway, bearing swords.

"Once Hatake Kakashi arrives, he will report directly to Garyu-_sama, _and you'll be released," Moritome told them as they filed inside.

Naruto immediately gave the room a once-over, inspecting it for traps. He didn't find anything, which didn't surprise him much. There wasn't much of _anything _in the room anyway, save for several shelves stacked with clothing, a lone cupboard mounted in the corner, and bedding folded neatly to one side. Sasuke merely stood in the middle of the room, surveying his surroundings with irritation. Like Naruto, he was worried about Kakashi.

Once inside, Shikyo turned to face the door with alacrity, as if a new thought had just occurred to him.

"Moritome-_sama_," he said sharply. "Have you contacted the Mist in light of the most recent attack? The Shirogane assassin?"

Moritome, who had been preparing to slide the doors shut from the outside, hesitated, remaining silent.

"Because I feel it would be best to withhold the information about this one," Shikyo pressed. "It would not be prudent to give the Mist reason to investigate the Rain . . . You know as well as I that relations between those two villages are strained at best . . ."

Moritome shook his head.

"It is necessary. The Mist will need to know how a technique forbidden among them came to be known by a member of the most powerful Clan in the Rain. They will want to find out how their secrets are being leaked, so that they can put a stop to it." He paused, eying the Rain ninja shrewdly. "We've sent the Heikou Elite to report directly to the Mizukage this time. If we don't maintain contact with the Mist, they will come to suspect that we've acquired assistance from _shinobi _of another village."

Shikyo was not reassured in the least. In fact, if anything he looked as close to afraid as Naruto had ever seen him.

"You've sent _our _representatives into the valley, into the forest to meet _them_?" he asked, wide-eyed. "Do you _wish _them to die? They are the Elite, but if the forest is where the assassins have their base . . ."

"If I _could_ have, I would've sent _you_," Moritome interrupted him sharply. "I know your abilities, and I trust you. But right now, for you to stay under close guard is the best I can do to protect your reputation among the Heikou. I am doing what I can; you do what _you _must." Naruto thought that last bit was an odd thing to say, and his puzzlement only deepened as Moritome's eyes flickered toward him briefly. "I trust you," he repeated, as if there were some significance to this. Then he turned and slid the doors shut behind him with a smart _clack. _

And the three _shinobi _were left alone.

Shikyo turned toward the two Genin.

"And now we wait," he said, slipping his pack off his back and throwing it on the floor. "If we're lucky, Kakashi-_san _will make his way here shortly after us. The Water-lord will have told the Heikou what he looks like, so that he won't be arrested, and hopefully he's still carrying his copy of the contract itself."

"So you believe the assassins have their base somewhere outside the city?" Sasuke asked, seating himself cross-legged on the floor. "And you think the representatives the Heikou have sent---the 'Elite'---will be killed by the assassins on the way to the Mist Village?"

"Or the Mist will kill them," Shikyo replied, "if the Mist are indeed behind these attacks. But _I_ have no further time to waste . . ."

At that moment, the _jutsu _dispelled. A torrent of water rained down on Sasuke, to whom Shikyo had been standing the closest. Sasuke drew in a sharp breath. Naruto, who had evaded being drenched by taking a quick step backward, gasped as well.

"_He's . . ."_

From outside, there came the sound of voices, and then sandaled feet tromping along the wooden terrace. Naruto and Sasuke exchanged alarmed glances. Then, thinking quickly, Naruto formed the fastest seal he'd ever made, and abruptly there was a Shikyo-clone standing between them. He had acted none too soon; the guards slid aside the door panels to see what the noise had been.

"What was that sound?" one of them asked, peering shrewdly at the three _shinobi _in the room.

Sasuke, who was the only one sitting on the floor, answered, "I tripped." Fortunately, Shikyo's discarded pack lay near his feet, and the Shikyo-clone was partially blocking the guard's view of him, so that neither of the two men peering through the door noticed the puddle on the floor, or that Sasuke's hair was dripping.

The guards frowned, sliding the door closed again.

Naruto and Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief, eyeing the _Kage Bunshin _Shikyo standing between them and digesting what it was that had just happened.

"A water clone," Sasuke whispered, after a bit. "He left us with a _water clone! _That arrogant bastard allowed his _clone_ to be arrested while he took off somewhere. He was planning to ditch us all along---even before he knew about the Elite being sent to the Mist!"

Scowling, Naruto plunked down on the floor as well, folding his arms.

"I _knew _I didn't like him for a reason," he said crossly. "What the hell was the _point _of him dragging us all this way and then getting us arrested? We can't be any help to him _here!_"

Sasuke was now wiping away the water dripping from his hair.

"Maybe . . . maybe he never wanted our help in the first place," he said darkly. "I'm thinking he only brought _us_ to Mizutou because his lord requested it."

"Damnit!" Naruto grumbled. "And now we're stuck here without knowing what's going on."

They lapsed into thoughtful silence for a while. Outside, it had begun to rain softly. They could hear the droplets pattering gently on the roof. Sasuke pulled off his sodden shirt and began squeezing the water out of the sleeves.

"You know, we _did _manage to learn several things, though," he remarked. "Shikyo couldn't hide _everything _from us. The first thing is that Shikyo is a member of the Shirogane Clan. That means he has a bloodline limit of some kind, which I don't think we've seen yet. It's almost as if he deliberately avoided showing it to us . . ."

Naruto shook his head.

"But his name's _Arashi _Shikyo, not _Shirogane_ Shikyo."

"Mm." Sasuke's eyes were on his shirt, which, unlike his normal clothes, bore no crest on the back. "Maybe he changed it. He seems to work closely with the Heikou . . . at least with the officers closest to the palace. Maybe he changed it because they hate _shinobi."_

Neither boy was pleased with this prospect. Both felt quite strongly that the Heikou's attitude was entirely unfair.

"And the other things?" Naruto asked, to distract himself from being irritated. "What else did you notice?"

Sasuke pulled off his undershirt and began wringing that out. Naruto squinted at him in suspicion.

"You're not going to get _naked_, are you?" he asked.

Sasuke gave him an equally squinty-eyed stare.

"Of course not, dumbass. The splash missed my pants."

"But . . . wait!" Naruto had just had a sudden epiphany. "That can't be right!"

"The splash _did _miss my pants," Sasuke repeated icily.

"No, no, not _that._" Naruto plunked down on the wood floor. The Shikyo-clone sat down as well. "What Moritome-_san _said . . . The assassins killed the second Mist assassin because he didn't have the guts to carry out the Shinkuhana _jutsu. _But they _ran _when Garyu-_sama's _guards busted in! Don't you think that's weird? If they're _shinobi _assassins, wouldn't they just kill the guards too? The Heikou seem quick with swords, but that wouldn't have saved them from killers that good. . ."

Slowly, Sasuke nodded.

"Unless . . . I can only think of two reasons why the killers would flee. One: they're trying to hide their identities to keep their Villages from being accused . . . Or two: they're not _shinobi. _They're civilians who _hired_ the missing-_nin _to undertake the assassinations." He paused, pulling his undershirt back over his head. "But the problem with the second reason is that it doesn't seem like civilians would be able to kill a _shinobi _assassin from a Clan said to be the strongest among the Rain. And the second assassin was killed by precise _taijutsu, _according to the Heikou. _And_ the first reason points to an alliance between the Mist and the Rain, which doesn't seem right because the Rain are currently disliked by both the Fire _and _Water countries . . ."

Naruto scratched his chin.

"Well, maybe the Mist are just _pretending _to hate the Rain," he suggested.

Sasuke snorted in disgust, folding his arms.

"Any Village putting up a false front to cover up an alliance with another wouldn't go so far as to attack it on a regular basis." In response to Naruto's quizzical expression, he added, "The Mist regularly attempt to invade the Rain, about every ten years. But of course _you _never paid attention in history lessons at the Academy."

Naruto grinned.

"Iruka-_sensei _always left the window open. Escape was easy."

Sasuke lost his condescending look and turned his head toward the door.

"Speaking of which . . ." he murmured. "I wonder if Kakashi's even _coming_. If he meets Shikyo outside the city walls, they may go after the Elite on their own. They may decide there's no time to waste coming back to get _us._"

"Nah." Naruto flopped down onto the floor, folding his arms under his head. "Kakashi-_sensei _seemed to want to reach the Water-lord first. I think he'll definitely come _here_."

But Sasuke still seemed intent on his own conjecture.

"Perhaps . . . we should go after Shikyo," he said softly.

Naruto cocked an eye toward him, frowning. But Sasuke didn't elaborate, and it seemed like he was talking to himself more than Naruto. He wore a rather dark look on his face, usually reserved for when he was thinking about the person he said he wanted to kill. Naruto, of course, was clueless as to what this might mean, but he knew he didn't like that look. It made him want to grab Sasuke and shake him until his teeth rattled.

"_Oi,_" he said, in a low voice. "We should stay _here. _It's our mission. If Shikyo's left Mizutou, and if Kakashi-_sensei's _not here, that means you and me are the only two _shinobi _left here. If something goes down, the guards outside will probably be alerted, and we'll leave _then. _We _have _to be here to protect Garyu-_sama, _no matter what!"

Sasuke's face remained stony, as if he hadn't heard Naruto at all. Slowly, he rose to his feet.

At that instant, however, the door to their prison slid open. Naruto sat up in a hurry, and Sasuke went perfectly still.

Standing in the doorway was a mummy.

It stood in the gray light of the open doorway, framed by wood and water dripping from the eaves of the roof. It was swathed in gray cloth, in a long mantle that was woven loosely around the waist and chest and shoulders and neck, and finally draped over the head, which was covered in a hood. A second mantle---blue, this one---was woven around most of the face beneath the hood, forming a silken cowl of sorts.

"Th-th-the walking dead!" Naruto shouted, pointing at it.

Sasuke said nothing.

"_Yo,_" the mummy said, raising one hand in amicable greeting. The one visible eye crinkled, indicating a smile beneath all that cloth.

"Kakashi-_sensei_!" Naruto shouted, with even greater volume than the possible presence of the walking dead had warranted.

"Of _course _it is," Sasuke snapped, finally breaking out of his odd mood. "So you notice when he's substituted himself with a log, but not when he has some cloth draped over him . . . ?" He broke off, shaking his head in disgust.

"I see you two managed to get yourselves arrested quite nicely," Kakashi remarked cheerily, stepping into the room. The Heikou guards behind him were already leaving; heading across the grassy courtyard toward business elsewhere. "Good; that means you two have had a rest. You'll be taking the first watch, so Sakura and I can sleep. We've only just arrived---all we've had time to do was meet with the Water-lord before coming to meet _you._"

"_Ehh?" _Naruto exclaimed. "Sakura-_chan's _with you?"

"I'm right here." Sakura stepped out from behind Kakashi, whom she'd followed into the room.

Naruto's jaw dropped. He'd been expecting her to be swathed from head to foot in cloth, like Kakashi, but instead she was wearing a dark red kimono with a red mantle draped over her shoulders and some sort of silver chain netting resting atop her hair.

"Sakura-_chan _looks beautiful."

. . . was what he _wanted _to say, but there were too many emotions surging through him at the sight of her and the words stuck in his throat. He was young, and couldn't possibly have found the proper words to express his relief at seeing her again after they'd lost her at the sea cliffs. But because he was Naruto, he hadto say _something . . ._

"Ha! You've got mesh on your head," he told her, pointing and laughing.

Sakura, who'd been smiling shyly at Sasuke---who was staring at her as well, albeit sans adoration---now turned his way and frowned.

"It's not _mesh,_" she informed him sharply. "It's real silver. In the Stone country they call them . . . uh . . ." She turned to Kakashi for help.

"Silver mesh," he prompted blithely. Then his tone turned more serious. "Sasuke, Naruto: as Sakura already knows, I've spoken to the Heikou leader, Moritome, and I know our cover's blown. Shikyo's blunder will make everything more difficult for us, so I've altered our plans for approaching this mission."

His two uninformed students just stared at him. Both felt Kakashi had an annoying habit of stating the obvious. They were hungry and they were tired. Sasuke was wounded, and Naruto was still feeling rather irritated that he _had _been wounded before the Nine-Tails' _chakra _did its work, and both of them were hoping Kakashi would suggest something on the order of sleep instead.

"No sleep for us tonight," Kakashi went on lightly, in a tone so calm they wanted to kill him. "Because tonight, you're going to be protecting _me._"

"_Ehh?_"

"Oh, for heaven's sake shut UP Naruto," Sakura snapped. "Just _listen._"

Naruto shut his gaping mouth. Sasuke he wouldn't have listened to, but something about Sakura had begun to worry him. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was definitely a bad feeling . . .

Even Kakashi glanced at her briefly before launching into his explanation. It was obvious that her behavior was a little more waspish than usual.

"Sakura and I are ambassadors from the Thunder Country," the Jounin informed them. "Well, to put it more precisely . . ." He paused, scratching his head, which didn't work too well through the layers of cloth on his head. "Sakura is my 'daughter'. This was the alibi we'd originally planned on using, but now it doesn't include you two in my entourage. Now that we no longer have anything to hide from the Heikou, I can use you two directly as Konoha ninjas. However, I want to keep my own identity and Sakura's under wraps for the time being. Only the Water-Lord knows who I am, and who Sakura is. He was the one who sent word that you two were to be freed from arrest, not me. As far as the Heikou know, the other two members of your team are dead."

Sasuke shook his head.

"I don't like this," he muttered. "Secrecy that complete is just going to get in the way of the mission at this point. _You're _the one who knows the Crimson Blossom _jutsu_; _you _should be the one closest to Garyu-_sama_ to protect him."

"_Ne, _Sasuke, don't question me," Kakashi said, in a tone so smooth it was blatantly a warning. "_We_ won't be guarding Garyu-_sama _himself. I've already met with him and discussed this. Tonight you'll be protecting me, because even though I've infiltrated Mizutou's palace and fooled the Heikou with this disguise, I've decided to act as the Water-lord's new body-double."

"Ah!" Naruto finally understood. "So you WILL be closest to the assassins that way. And we'll be helping you pretend to be Garyu-_sama _by sticking close to you as your 'protectors'. That's really smart," he added happily, partially out of self-congratulation for figuring it out.

"Come on, then," Kakashi bade them, turning toward the door. "We shouldn't linger here in the Heikou _dojo_ section of the palace."

"I think we shouldn't trust those guys," Naruto said, following close behind him. "The Heikou, I mean. That guy Moritome was acting weird."

Kakashi looked at him askance. "Who did you think these disguises were for? It's not the civilians in this city that worry me. The Heikou monitor _everything_ here. Every street; every nobleman. They cover Mizutou like a web. Which is why . . . I think we must consider them suspects." He stepped outside onto the terrace. The place was empty now, and the rain had stopped. "But we should also take care not to give them reason to be more hostile to us than they already are. They could point to _us_ as suspects, and then things would get . . . difficult."

"Sakura-_chan, _are you alright?" Naruto asked, drawing abreast of her and peering curiously at her face. "You look pale."

Before she could open her mouth to reply, Kakashi stopped abruptly on the edge of the terrace, nearly causing Naruto to bump into him.

"Sasuke, what is it?" he asked in a low voice.

Sasuke hadn't moved.

"You _do _know Shikyo's gone into the forest, don't you?" Sasuke pressed. "That he's abandoned us?"

"His blunder has created some minor problems for us," Kakashi replied without turning around. "But Shikyo-_san _doesn't concern me most right now. Our client's safety is where the mission's priorities lie." In his nonchalant way, the Jounin had just warned Sasuke that he'd noticed the Genin's seeming fixation on the Rain ninja. Sasuke wasn't stupid. He let it drop.

He stepped off the terrace and began crossing the courtyard. This time, Sasuke followed.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

He stood in the wood, surrounded by corpses. Thick bamboo poles rose on all sides of him like pillars to a dark temple, canopied with leaves. The torch he carried flickered firelight over the dead.

They were strewn across the forest floor, twisted and contorted as if the very bones inside them had been bent and reshaped. Their fingers clawed at the air, and at the dirt, and at themselves, hooked into rictus and motionless now.

This was what remained of the Heikou Elite, whom Moritome had so rashly sent into the valley of the Mist.

Shikyo stood at the center of them all, like the hub of a wheel, surveying the remains. His gaze was calm and cold.

"How foolish," he said.

He blew the torch out with one full breath and tossed it carelessly on the ground. Then he turned and slipped off into the darkness. He was heading back up the slope toward Mizutou.

There was proof enough now of a direct attack. There would be no more talk of independent conspiracies; of assassins' rings. The wrath of the Heikou would swiftly burst the floodgates and sweep toward the ones with whom their greatest suspicions lay.

The fate of the Mist had been sealed.

**END OF CHAPTER 6**

_Yamisui: Okay, I know those of you who don't like more . . . uh . . . cerebral stories are probably asleep by now. But believe me, this chapter's so full of clues you'd better have read it carefully. The next chapter will be "The Nightingale Floor"---not to be confused with Lian Hearn's book, which I haven't read even though I'm told it's good. _


	7. The Nightingale Floor

_Author's Note: Taking a friend's advice, I'm going to start listing the cast of characters thus far, just so it's less confusing. (There are quite a few important OC's in this story.)_

_Arashi Shikyo: Rain ninja, servant of the Water-lord _

_Garyu: highest feudal lord of the Water Country_

_Moritome: currently the highest ranking officer among the Heikou, now that the Elite are dead_

_Heikou: the swordsmen who act as guards for the city_

_the Elite: the most skillful Heikou, who act as both ambassadors and honor guard for Lord Garyu---or at least they did until they got whacked_

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**o o Chapter 7: The Nightingale Floor o o**

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

The main quarters of Mizutou's palace were opulent beyond anything the three Genin had ever seen. Azure veins of lapis marbled the white columns lining the walkways, and lining the halls were vases so expensive-looking Naruto was sure he'd end up breaking one during his stay here. There were tapestries hung everywhere, cut from silk and embroidered with scenes of men in bulky-looking armor waging war with _katana. _

'_Stupid-looking helmets,' _Naruto thought as he rubbernecked. _'They look like upside-down baskets with horns.'_

"We'll use the remainder of the day to take care of your needs," Kakashi informed his students as they trailed after him. Sakura seemed like she was having a bit of trouble keeping up. "I'll acquire medical supplies courtesy of Garyu-_sama, _and I'm sure you want out of those wet clothes."

"Hey, at least Sasuke _has _clothes," Naruto grumbled, scratching at his back, which was bare save for one thin, ragged strand of shirt hanging low round his waist. He felt naked compared to everyone else.

"Naruto, don't scratch that," Sakura ordered. She was walking behind him and trying not to notice how the muscles of his back rippled when he moved and becoming irritated with herself for noticing anyway. "It's almost closed; you'll start it bleeding again."

Naruto saw Kakashi cast an eye back his way and quickly turned toward Sakura to avoid meeting his _sensei's _gaze. He didn't know why Kakashi seemed more concerned with _his _injuries than Sasuke's, and he didn't like it. After all, _he _was the one who healed fastest, so it wasn't like he was going to be a burden to anyone.

'_Not as bad as Sasuke, anyway . . .' _Naruto snuck a glance at Sasuke's bandaged hand. The rag wound round it was dark with blood. It looked bad---too useless to hold a sword.

Sasuke saw him looking and jammed the hand in his pocket. Several of his fingers stuck out through a tear in the pocket's lining.

"_Oi, _Sasuke," Naruto said. "Your---"

"Here we are," Kakashi interrupted him, sliding open the door panels to a room in front of them.

The panels were shiny; painted with various brightly-colored fish. Naruto trailed a hand along one of them as he prepared to follow his comrades in. Kakashi, however, stopped dead in the doorway. Just as he'd set one foot past the threshold, the four of them heard the loud, distinct sound of a musical tone, like a harp-chord being plucked.

Sasuke bumped into him.

"Hmm," the Jounin murmured, scratching his head through the layers of cloth wound round it. "What's this?"

"An A-note," Sasuke observed.

"You weren't informed of this?" a voice asked from behind them. "This room contains a nightingale floor."

It was the tall Heikou captain, Moritome. He'd come up behind them so silently none of them had heard him move.

"I know what it _is,_" Kakashi replied dryly. "My question is: why is it _here_?"

"Garyu-_sama _saw fit to make me privy to your identity, Kakashi-_san,_" Moritome answered evasively. "He trusts me, and I shall keep your secret for his sake. As for the floor . . . perhaps the young _shinobi _are unaware of what this is? I believe an explanation is warranted." The swordsman glanced pointedly at Naruto, who was trying to edge around Sasuke to see inside the room.

Kakashi sighed, turning to face his students. "I've come across a nightingale floor before. They're used to deter _shinobi _assassins. Each floor panel you step on will play a different note, so that even if the room is completely dark the person inside will hear intruders approaching and know precisely where they are by the tone played." It was clear from Kakashi's tone that staying in a room with such a floor was going to be a royal pain.

Naruto thought it sounded like fun.

Kakashi turned back toward Moritome.

"You know, these things don't really _work_," he said drolly. "On _shinobi, _anyway . . ."

To demonstrate, the Jounin flipped the light switch nearest the door, stepped inside, and began strolling up the wall. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura followed him in on the ground, setting off respective tones on the floor as they walked. Given the ordeal on the southern cliffs, none of them were particularly keen on summoning _chakra _into their feet to take the ceiling route.

"This is annoying," Sasuke muttered, glowering at the panels.

Moritome remained in the doorway, watching Kakashi's progress in silence.

Naruto, in the meantime, was temporarily distracted from whole nightingale floor business because he'd noticed Sakura suddenly going gray in the face and swaying where she stood. He caught her elbow to steady her, and for once she didn't pull away. Her gaze turned longingly toward the lavish bed at the center of the room, as if she wanted a lie-down very badly.

The bed was gilded and lacquered and festooned with green silk curtains to the point of being tacky. To top off the effect, the frame was shaped like a pair of giant silver swans who were Siamese twins. It was also the only piece of furniture in the room aside from a gaudy chandelier overhead, raised on a kind of low platform one foot above the nightingale floor. Naruto squinted at it, wondering what sort of man this Garyu-_sama _was to want to sleep in something so freakish.

"I am well aware of your kind's way of drawing _chakra _into their feet to defy gravity," Moritome finally remarked, as Kakashi made a ninety-degree turn and started across the ceiling. "But _this _floor was made specifically to deter _shinobi _using the Crimson Blossom _jutsu. _ As far as we were able to determine from the previous attacks, the assassins can't use your wall-walking techniques before performing the _Shinkuhana. _They've all been forced to go straight across the floor."

Kakashi reached the center of the room and let himself drop, turning a neat somersault onto the huge bed. He stumbled a bit upon landing; the bed was a lot springier than it looked. His students made their way noisily over to join him, Naruto still steadying Sakura as she sat down on the mattress.

"Well, I can't say that's not plausible," Kakashi said, "but I _have _known wielders of the _jutsu _to use other techniques at the same time . . ."

"The attacks follow a consistent pattern," Moritome interrupted. "There is always just _one _assassin. All the assassins had accomplices whose footsteps made no sound on the floor initially. This implies that the accomplices were _shinobi, _using the wall-walking technique you've just demonstrated. The three assassins who were caught in the act and killed---both by their accomplices and by the Heikou---were all caught because they stepped on the nightingale floor. The others were presumably _carried _across the ceiling by their comrades."

'_Which means a Mist-Rain alliance,' _Naruto thought, proud of himself for making the connection even though he was just remembering what Sasuke had said half an hour ago.

Kakashi sat down cross-legged on the bed, scratching his head.

"Thank you for the information," he said. "I'll bear it in mind, and be sure to ask appropriate questions when I go to dinner as the Water-lord. But for now, as Shigure-_sama _of Thunder Country, I request that you send someone to fetch the medical supplies Garyu-_sama _sent to my 'daughter' Sakura's quarters. And the _katana _I requested from the armory."

For one brief instant, Moritome's cheek twitched, as if it irked him greatly to play servant to "their kind." Then he cleared his throat, nodded, and disappeared from the doorway.

Naruto turned to Kakashi. "Sakura's rooming by herself?" he asked anxiously.

The girl in question was sitting slouched on the bed, looking rather ill.

"For a while," Kakashi agreed. "She was badly injured, and I want her to rest for the next few days before she joins you in dealing with the assassin problem."

Sakura flushed and slouched even more, causing her head ornament to jangle and fall over her eyes. She seemed embarrassed.

Kakashi noticed, and crinkled his one visible eye in her direction.

"You were the only one of the lot to come back to help me at the cliffs, and you pulled me out of the ocean, didn't you?" he reminded her gently. "That counts for something. You've earned a rest." He nodded pointedly toward her other teammates. "Unlike these two. They got themselves arrested and probably had a nice chat while sitting around in custody."

"Shikyo-_san _dragged us all over the city first!" Naruto insisted indignantly. "We didn't get a rest! Then he ditched us and I had to use MORE_ chakra _to make a water clone. We're---" Kakashi cut him short with a glance as Moritome returned, carrying a basket full of the requested items.

Kakashi thanked him quietly, to which Moritome replied stiffly, "I shall see you at dinner."

It seemed the Heikou captain couldn't get away from them fast enough. Naruto tromped back across the floor to slide the door panels closed behind him.

"Good riddance," he remarked sourly.

"Heh," was Sasuke's reply from the bed.

"Here, face this way." Kakashi had just taken Sakura gently by the shoulders and turned her toward the opposite wall. He drew a roll of bandages and some antiseptic from the basket. "Naruto, Sasuke: tonight I'm afraid you're going to have to use up more of your energy. This room simply allows nowhere to hide, so you're going to have to conceal yourself in places where you can move without triggering the nightingale floor."

Sasuke looked up sharply. "That means---"

"You, Sasuke, will be under the bed," Kakashi finished for him. "Positioning you at the center of the room would be to your best advantage if we're attacked."

Somewhat shyly, Sakura was pulling down her kimono to expose her back. Naruto found his attention switching back and forth between the nasty-looking wound in her side and the fact that he could see her bra from the back. The wound still appeared to be oozing a little blood; the bandages that Kakashi removed were stained with it. The bra was pink.

"Naruto," Kakashi said sharply. Naruto blinked, forcing his gaze elsewhere. "You will be spending tonight on the ceiling."

Naruto's jaw dropped, and Sasuke let out a short, barking, "Ha!" Clearly he felt Naruto was getting his due for the incident back at the inn on the Aoite Road.

"Because of your stamina," Kakashi finished, which confused Naruto because he didn't know whether to grin or scowl. The praise felt good, especially in front of Sasuke. But spending the night wasting _chakra _was going to be hellish.

Once Kakashi had finished slathering Sakura's side with disinfectant he re-wrapped the bandages and she replaced her kimono.

"You _will _rest," he told her decisively. "There was poison on the spines; it may be an entire day before the medicine fights it off. You'll probably get a fever when the night comes and the fog rolls over the mountains here, so try to sleep as much as you can."

Sakura nodded woozily. Naruto noticed she seemed to have lost some of her embarrassment now that the prospect of bed was an imminent one. Kakashi helped her up, handed her _katana _to her, and accompanied her across the room to the door adjoining to hers, which he opened for her and then shut behind her. His long-legged stride then played a G-scale as he walked back to the bed.

"Your turn," he said lightly, motioning for Sasuke to show his wounded hand.

"He was stabbed by a poisonous spine, too," Naruto informed Kakashi, tromping a straight line of A-notes over to join them. He didn't sit down on the bed but stood there staring at the bloody hole in his teammate's hand. It looked vaguely purplish around the edges.

"It won't impair my movement," Sasuke insisted, flexing the fingers to demonstrate. The movement made blood ooze from the hole between where it had clotted.

"Make a fist," Kakashi told him patiently. This Sasuke did with alacrity, but the gesture was obviously agonizing because his face turned ghastly white immediately after doing so. "As I thought," the Jounin murmured gravely. "There's some nerve damage. Sasuke, I think for the next week or so, until your body's _chakra _can heal the damage, you will not attempt _taijutsu _or use of weapons with that hand. Also no _Chidori. _Keep use of it reserved for forming seals, but for other things . . ." He paused, setting Sasuke's _katana _beside him on the bed. "You're going to have to be a left-handed swordsman."

Naruto swallowed hard, staring at the hole in his comrade's hand and seeing it in a whole new light. While Sakura needed rest to heal the spine-wound in her side, Sasuke's injury was a more serious matter. The _katana _techniques they had learned either involved both hands or skillful use of the sword-hand. Sasuke's _kenjutsu _training had just been rendered near-obsolete.

Sasuke obviously knew it as well; he was glaring down at the hand as if he'd rather cut it off than have it hold him back.

"No _Chidori,_" Kakashi warned him, driving the message home with repetition because he knew Sasuke very well. "And _no _physical use of the hand in combat. If you do . . . you may find it useless even when it comes to forming seals." He helped Sasuke to wrap clean strips of cloth around his palm to replace the bloody rags he'd been using, then rose to his feet again.

"_Sensei, _are you going to go to dinner now?" Naruto asked somewhat irritably. He didn't much like being left alone with Sasuke when Sasuke was in such a dour mood. There was a dark air that seemed to have been hovering over the Uchiha Genin since . . . since . . . well, since Shikyo had first explained the _Shinkuhana _technique.

"I'm going," Kakashi agreed, "but before I do I want you to take off your shirt, Naruto."

Naruto looked down at himself. The shirt was little better than a rag covering his chest and one shoulder. It had been one of his favorites, too. He grasped two fistfuls of cloth and ripped it in half, letting it slide off him onto the floor, where it played a soft A-note. He wished Sakura had been here to see this; he felt he had nice pecs.

But what Kakashi wanted was to take yet _another _look at his back. And neck.

"Kakashi-_sensei, _you already _saw _those wounds," Naruto protested, not wanting to be taken down a notch to Sasuke's level. "I'm all better!"

But Kakashi seemed to be done with his examination.

"Yes, and you're very lucky, Naruto," he remarked. "These two wounds, unlike Sasuke's and Sakura's, were meant to kill instantly. The needle in your neck, and the hooks in your back---"

"The guy with the hooks was trying to _drown_ me, not puncture anything vital," Naruto interrupted, turning around. "That's why he pulled me down."

Kakashi sighed. "That may be so, but the location of that wound . . . If you recall the studies of _taijutsu, _of which you're so fond, you'll realize the strike was probably _meant _to sever your spine at the neck. Instead, you probably lost your balance and your attacker didn't expect that, so he got your back instead and tried to drown you."

Slowly, Naruto nodded. Clumsiness had its perks.

"Regardless," Kakashi went on, "the point is that whoever attacked us seemed to know our capabilities well. They knew about your regenerative abilities." The Jounin put a vague emphasis on _abilities, _and Naruto wondered if he didn't really mean "they knew about the demon inside you." But Kakashi immediately turned to Sasuke and added, "They also knew to attack _you_ under water, where it was dark and your Sharingan would be impaired."

Naruto realized what Kakashi was warning them of, but he didn't like seeing his teacher in such a grave mood any more than he liked Sasuke's aura of gloom.

"That's alright, _Sensei!_" he asserted, brandishing a fist in the air. "If they think they know us, we'll just have to surprise them, won't we?"

"Well, surprises _are _your specialty," Kakashi remarked dryly. "In the meantime, there's a set of fresh clothes for each of you in the bottom of the basket. Lay low, both of you, and try to conserve your strength. It's highly likely that you'll need it. _Henge!_"

Before the Jounin turned a smart about-face, his students caught a good glimpse of the shape he'd transformed into---purportedly the Water-lord. A man of about fifty; short, stocky, with a wrinkled face and blue eyes.

Wearing some of the most foppish clothes either Genin had ever seen.

Naruto's stomach muscles began to cramp as he reined in the savage impulse to howl with laughter. He knew he should show a bit of respect when his teacher was wearing the likeness of such a powerful nobleman---the ruler of the whole _country---_who also happened to be a client, and he didn't want his _Sensei _to suspect him of another prank like the _boken _incident. So he held it in.

The fop raised two fingers vaguely in the familiar Kakashi salute. "_Ja mata,_" he said. Then he was out the door, and his Genin were left to themselves.

Sasuke was sitting on the bed, alternately scowling at Naruto and at the hideous sculpted swan's head that formed one of the bedposts.

"Go on, let it out before your spleen explodes," he snapped.

Naruto obliged, finally giving in to the urge to bend double with laughter. "He's . . . he's . . . worse than the BED!" he gasped. "The hat looks like a six-year-old girl's PILLOW with a . . . with a . . ."

"Weather vane on top?" Sasuke finished for him. "Yeah, well, laugh now, but he's the only one of us on this mission who's worth a damn."

This sobered Naruto a good deal, and he straightened. "Hey! Don't count ME out! _I'm _still---" He paused, then realized expounding on his own good health was not helping the injured Sasuke's wounded pride. "You too," he added, but it was already too late. Sasuke's scowl deepened, and for a moment Naruto thought he'd come back with a truly cutting retort.

Sasuke, however, finally sighed in disgust and flopped backward onto the bed, arms spread-eagled. "So now we wait," was all he said.

Naruto, who had no intention of waiting quietly, quickly found a way to occupy himself. Soon he was hopping madly across the room in all directions, and musical notes were ringing off the walls. After about ten minutes had passed he was forced to stop as a pillow slammed into him hard enough to take his head off. He went crashing to the floor, landing with a discordant jangle of G- and F-notes.

"What the hell?" he sputtered, sitting up and rubbing his jaw. "Didn't you recognize '_Tsukiyaki'_?"

Sasuke, who had thrown the pillow left-handed, flopped backward onto the bed again. "I don't care what song you were playing. Just shut UP." He paused a beat, then added in slightly more civil tone, "Besides, you'll wake Sakura."

It was the most thoughtful thing Sasuke had said the entire trip, and this more than anything else made Naruto pay attention and oblige him. He trotted over and flopped down on the other side of the bed. The movement jounced Sasuke a bit; the mattress was springy.

"You should sleep, too," Sasuke reminded Naruto. "You're the one who's spending the night creeping along the ceiling like a spider."

Soon after Naruto was snoring, dreaming that he was scuttling up the room's chandelier on eight legs.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Sasuke lay there for a far longer time before drifting off, staring at the ceiling. He did this a lot; he felt he knew every inch of every ceiling of every place he'd ever slept. But he couldn't help it. There was something about lying in silence that allowed the memories to close in like four walls.

He was beginning to feel as if his time were running out. That somehow, inevitably, he must fulfill his vengeance soon before Itachi moved forever beyond his reach. In daylight it was easier to tell himself that he had all the time in the world to grow stronger; Itachi wasn't going to die before Sasuke got his hands on him. At night, in the deeper watches, it was getting harder and harder to dispel those nagging doubts---and to convince himself that he wasn't just wasting time with his comrades on these missions.

Tonight, however, he felt certain that _this _mission was going to be well worth his while. If he could just find the right opportunity . . .

'_There's still a chance,' _he mused grimly. _'So long as I can still use the Sharingan to learn seals . . . there's a chance.'_

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Both Naruto and Sasuke woke much later that evening in a state of considerable confusion. What greeted their ears as the chamber door slid open was not the soft, cautious greeting heralding Kakashi's return but the sound of a woman's voice, dulcet and pretty, humming a snatch of song. Naruto had already run up the wall at the sound of the door sliding, and was now forced to crouch on the ceiling and use a camouflage technique all at once. He gritted his teeth as he saw Kakashi-in-disguise enter behind the woman; because the Jounin had brought someone new in here he would be forced to waste even more_ chakra _tonight. He hoped fervently the woman would leave soon.

It soon became apparent that she wouldn't.

"You really mustn't keep eating without letting one of your servants taste the food first," she told Kakashi-in-disguise. "You're too trusting, Husband."

As she spoke she unfastened the wrappings of her _obi _and kimono, letting them slide carelessly to the floor. She was wearing nothing but a thin silk shift underneath. Naruto grinned, thinking that poor Sasuke was missing out on an eyeful. This woman---obviously the Water-lord's wife---had a figure Jiraiya would give a ten. But Kakashi seemed to take no notice, turning away and doffing only the weather-vane-pillow-hat before rolling into bed.

"I trust the Heikou," he replied curtly. His voice sounded muffled because he was facing the opposite wall and had drawn the covers up to his chin.

The woman crossed the room and slid the door shut, plunging the room into darkness. Naruto followed the light tones of her feet back across the floor, then heard the rustling of fabric as she, too slid into bed.

"Good night," she said softly.

There was silence for a while. Naruto shifted restlessly on the ceiling. He was still sleepy, which made him twitchy. He was debating grabbing onto the chandelier fixture for a while to ease some of the weight off his feet when a light suddenly came on over the bed. He froze, staring down at it. He'd stupidly abandoned caution and let the camouflaging _jutsu _dispel because the lights had been out. If she looked up at the ceiling, she'd see him for sure. If he moved to a better spot or restored the _jutsu_, she'd hear him.

Fortunately, she only had eyes for Kakashi. She had flicked a switch somewhere on the bed, and little lights had come on in the swans' eyes, making them look rather demonic. The canopy frame suspended over the top half of the bed was also lined with little twinkle-lights, clearly illuminating the woman and the Water-lord's form lying beside her. She had very long blond hair, which spilled down over her shoulders in a silk waterfall, and very long legs.

"I know you're not my husband," she said coldly, rising onto her knees and glaring down at Kakashi with her arms folded over her chest. "Who are you?"

Kakashi-in-disguise rolled over onto his back, forearms crooked behind his head.

"I'm a double," he said simply. "I know you were informed there would be a double tonight, weren't you? Well, that's who I am."

The woman bent nearer to him, frowning and pursing full lips.

"I've never seen a double like you before," she remarked. "You _are _him. To a fault. Why do you look exactly like him?"

Kakashi sighed. Naruto sighed as well, thinking how stupid it had been not to tell the Water-lord's own _wife _about the transformation _jutsu. _It was bad enough the poor woman was having to endure all the assassination attempts, let alone having to share her bed with a stranger . . .

"I'm a ninja," Kakashi replied soothingly, "using a transformation technique. This isn't what I _actually _look like."

The woman stared dubiously at him, keeping her arms cross over her breasts like she thought he was going to attack her.

"Can you un-transform?" she asked. "I like to know who I'm dealing with." She was shaking visibly; even from ceiling-height Naruto could see her shoulders move.

Kakashi obliged, and in a faint puff of dispelling _jutsu _there was a masked _shinobi _lying under the covers in place of the fop. The woman eyed him shrewdly without a word, and he bore her scrutiny patiently. Then, unexpectedly, she whipped the blankets off him, inspecting his person with the same shrewd look in her eye. She unwrapped the turban-like mantle from around his head. She parted the robes over his chest and patted the pockets of the _shinobi _vest he still wore beneath, bending nearer and sniffing at him as she did so.

He let her do this without a word or a movement, which puzzled Naruto. _'Does he LIKE being pawed by married women?'_

Finally she looked up at Kakashi's face again, and her expression smoothed.

"No weapons," she murmured. "And no scent of poison. Good. I'll trust you."

Then she lay down beside him---_very _close beside him, resting her head just under the curve of his chin. "I'm glad you're here," she said softly. "I won't be alone."

Naruto was now staring goggle-eyed down at his teacher. Kakashi's one visible eye narrowed briefly up at him. It was a warning; it meant: _Stay quiet or your cover's blown._

"What about the lights?" Kakashi asked the Water-lord's wife after a minute. "Don't you want them off?"

"Mm," she mumbled, shifting. Naruto thought she was going to push herself up into a sitting position to hit the switch again. Instead, she slung one long leg over Kakashi's and pulled herself on top of him.

This time Naruto's jaw dropped, but he was in no danger of making a sound. This was _not _a situation they taught you about in the Academy. He waited to see what Kakashi would do.

What Kakashi did was raise his one visible eyebrow as the woman started making little mewling noises like a hungry kitten, trying to bite at his neck through the fabric of the gray mask he wore. He didn't move at all. After the woman realized he wasn't going to respond, she sat up a little, leaning both elbows on his chest.

"Going to be an honorable man?" she purred throatily. "Well, I guess you can _try. _They _all _tried."

She lifted her body off him a little, so that she crouched over him on all fours, but she proceeded to bury her face between the parted folds of his robes, which Naruto took to mean she wasn't done yet.

Still Kakashi didn't move. Finally she raised her head again, breathing a little harder now, but her eyes were shining.

"That's all right," she breathed. "You don't even have to move."

She lowered herself again and began moving her hips against his in a very slow, undulating rhythm, which even through Kakashi's layers of clothing must have been quite pleasant. The Jounin's eyebrow rose even further.

On the ceiling, Naruto swallowed thickly. He wondered if this was like something Jiraiya would put in his novels. He could understand now why they didn't mention situations like this in school, but he wondered why there weren't warnings about this for older _shinobi. _Maybe it was something they told you about when you reached Jounin level. _No sex with clients' spouses, and that means YOU, right there, in the green vest. With the mask._

She was panting now, grinding herself against him faster but at the same time reaching with one hand for the mask over his face. Two crimson-nailed fingers hooked under the cloth and began to drag it down over his nose.

Kakashi's hand closed round her wrist in a split-second, forcing her hand back while his other hand replaced the mask. He sat up quickly, the one exposed eye back to its droll, deadpan regard.

"I don't think so," he told her.

She froze mid-thrust, maintaining her balance atop him but seeming startled because he'd moved so fast. Then her sly smile crept back across her lips, and she pulled his hand toward her, taking two of his fingers delicately in her mouth and sucking at them.

"Get off," he ordered, a great deal less gently than the way he'd addressed her before.

"Shall I scream?" she asked, shifting teasingly in his lap. He twitched; Naruto didn't blame him. "Shall I make _you _scream?'' she murmured. "Either way, the Heikou will come running."

Something flickered in Kakashi's gaze. "The Heikou may well be the ones targeting your husband."

Her hips went still, and the smile froze on her lips.

Kakashi disengaged his hand from hers and pulled the mask away from his Sharingan eye. Naruto saw it flare red briefly and the woman gasped. Then she flopped over sideways onto the bed. Kakashi arranged her in a more comfortable position and deftly drew the covers up to her chin. Then he rose from the bed, using another _Henge no Jutsu _to replace the Water-lord's appearance.

"I'll be back in five minutes," he said, tilting his head upward to peer at Naruto. "You watch over her until I return."

The Jounin walked a line of A-notes to the door and exited the chambers. His step sounded somewhat heavy; probably he was walking a bit more bowlegged than usual.

Naruto stared down at the sleeping woman and let out a long exhalation. He was thinking, _'She's going to be trouble.' _But he was also thinking, _'I can't wait to be a Jounin.'_

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

In the morning, the Water-lord's wife appeared to be the only one well-rested. She rose from the bed with a dainty yawn and a much-less-dainty stretching of her arms, which caused her well-formed bosom to rise a good four inches. Kakashi sat up and deftly replaced the mantle round his face and neck again, righting the robes he wore without so much as a glance in her direction.

"I won't tell my husband about last night," she informed him unabashedly. When this elicited no response, she laughed a little, reaching for the kimono she'd dropped on the floor. "Can you help me with the _obi_?"

Naruto, _still _clinging to the ceiling like a fly on the wall, blinked blearily down at her. The previous night he'd thought she was sexy. This morning, he just wished she were dead. Because of her he was being forced to stay where he was far later into the morning than he'd anticipated. His feet were burning terribly from the strain of maintaining _chakra _concentration in them. Of Sasuke, he had seen neither hide nor hair. Apparently the dark-haired Genin was still secreted under the bed.

Kakashi, acting the gentleman, helped the woman to tie her _obi, _which made Naruto wonder because the Jounin was _awfully _adept at it. Why was Kakashi so familiar with women's clothing? The Water-lord's wife tried to use the opportunity to get him to touch her breasts, but Kakashi was too quick for her.

"I'm going out," he informed her cheerily, stepping back. "I'll be attending breakfast as Shigure of the Thunder Country, so please make the appropriate excuses for your husband's absence."

She was obviously displeased, because she smiled even more sweetly and nodded. "Why, I shall accompany you myself, Ninja-_san._"

"Afterward I must return to my investigation of the assassination attempts," Kakashi went on. "Also as Shigure."

Naruto could see that Kakashi's usual subtlety wasn't working, and that even though the Jounin was going to be wearing the disguise of a man who _wasn't _her husband she clearly intended to stick to him like glue all day.

'_I wonder if all his porn's prepared him for this,' _Naruto thought, waiting for Kakashi's reaction.

Kakashi merely smiled, cool as a cucumber.

"Very well, you can follow me if you like," he conceded. "But before we set out I have to go wake my daughter."

To her credit, the Water-lord's wife didn't even blink. "You didn't come alone, then?"

"No," he replied, strolling toward the door adjoining his room with Sakura's. To Naruto's chagrin and bemusement, the woman's smile went sly for a second, and then she sauntered in the opposite direction, heading for the chamber's exit into the hall.

"I shall see you both at breakfast, then," she called gaily. Then she was gone.

Naruto heaved an enormous sigh of relief. Then he realized that it was quite a long ways across the ceiling and down the wall to get to the door to shut it. And his feet were burning so bad it was like his nerves were on fire. He had just finished cursing out the woman in his head for leaving the door wide open when something black and white took a flying leap from the bed's platform to the ceiling, then went streaking across the ceiling and down the wall like a bat out of hell. Sasuke skidded to a halt inches above the door and slid it shut from the top.

For a moment afterward Sasuke crouched there silently, and it looked to Naruto like he'd zoned out. Then his face contorted and he sneezed explosively.

"There's probably a snot rag in the medicine bag," Naruto told him, pointing down at the basket beside the bed. Naruto's face acquired a squinty-eyed look of distaste. The sneeze was huge and messy; probably one of the most disgusting things he'd ever seen Sasuke do. All the girls who thought Sasuke was perfect needed to spend a mission or two with him. Familiarity had a way of dispelling certain illusions.

"_Oi, _Sasuke, are you okay?" he called out as Sasuke made a straight beeline for the bag. The Uchiha Genin's fit continued in a string of smaller sneezes, which alternated in bizarre countermeasure to the tones his sprinting feet played across the floor. He found a clean cloth and blew his nose noisily.

In the meantime, Naruto decided he was just going to let himself drop straight from the ceiling to the bed. He felt too worn to take the long way down---across the ceiling and down the wall, like Sasuke. Instead he let the _chakra _in his feet dispel.

Naruto fell a good twenty feet, bounced hard off the springy mattress, and landed on his back on the nightingale floor next to the bed. One of the tiles under him cracked; at first he thought it was his spine.

"Owwww," he moaned, once he'd regained the wind knocked out of him by the belly-flop on the mattress. He lay there reflecting that freefall, while fun in theory, had been a rather stupid idea.

"Nice, dumbass," Sasuke remarked after a final swipe at his nose. "The sun's only just risen and you've already managed to break something. What're you up to, fuck-up number five? Or maybe it's six---one for each day of the mission."

"Shove it," Naruto retorted, pushing himself up into a sitting position and rubbing at the back of his head. He was too weary to rise to Sasuke's goading. "I feel like hell. I want breakfast. And a foot massage."

"Stop acting like _you're_ so put-upon," Sasuke mumbled, losing his sneer in a yawn. "_I _had to lie right _under _them. And I'm allergic to whatever perfume she's wearing. Try spending an hour holding in the urge to sneeze."

"Ha!" Naruto crowed woozily, climbing to his feet and stepping off of the broken tile. "So you _did _hear them from under all those layers of dust-ruffle. Bet you liked THAT, _nee_? Bet your thing got all---"

"Finish that sentence and I'll break your teeth," Sasuke snapped. He rubbed at his eyes with both fists as he came over to examine the tile. "I hope we don't have to pay for this."

"But SERIOUSLY," Naruto persisted, "that lady has DEFINITELY got some big---"

Sasuke sighed, shaking his head in disgust. "If the bedsprings start creaking _tonight, _I swear I'll stick a _katana _straight up through the mattress."

He spun a sharp about-face, and simultaneously _henge_'d into the taller, blue-clad form of a Heikou swordsman.

"Where're YOU going?" Naruto asked him. He was heading for the door.

"Where's it look like?" Sasuke said dourly. "Breakfast."

"_Oi_! Wait for _me_!"

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

As it turned out, getting breakfast while wearing ubiquitous Heikou-disguises was laughably easy. The breakfast itself was woefully un-filling.

The two Genin followed one of the Heikou down several corridors to a mess hall of sorts, where some kind of seafood paste was being served over rice along with one small bowl of _miso _and tea. While it was apparently permissible to converse over the meal, the Heikou still ate kneeling on pads on the floor, in orderly lines. In short, it was probably the worst kind of breakfast for someone like Naruto. He ducked out of the room several times, _henge_'d and returned to get more food, left the room with his food, _henge'_d again, then came back to sit beside Sasuke. He'd managed two extra servings before Sasuke finally hissed, "Stop that. You've had enough."

Naruto downed his last cup of tea and set it down by his knee, grimacing because he'd found it bitter. "I'm a warrior; I need my food," he argued.

Sasuke's stomach chose that moment to gurgle loudly. He rose to his feet, lip curling in disgust. "Let's go," he said, tugging at Naruto's sleeve to force him to his feet as well. "We should attend the _dojo, _to investigate."

Moments later, they were walking briskly down the myriad hallways, utterly lost.

"This place is a maze," Naruto remarked. "It's like someone _meant _to build it to confuse us." He added, under his breath, "Probably the same freak who designed the Water-lord's bed." Naruto could've sworn they'd passed the tapestry with the geishariding the elephant twice already, but couldn't be sure because he might have been remembering the previous day. It was like trying to navigate through a veil of _genjutsu, _except that wasn't possible because Sasuke would have noticed if there was one.

Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hey, Sasuke! What is it?" Naruto asked, peering at his comrade's face, which wore an uncharacteristic look of surprise.

"It _is,_" Sasuke whispered, black eyes wide with epiphany. "You're right. It _is _like a maze. Not just the palace, but the whole _city."_

Naruto mulled this over. The long trek from the gates to the palace with Shikyo had certainly been confusing, but he'd thought it was just because he was so tired then.

"Why would they build a maze to get to the center of their own city?" Naruto asked, squinting. "That's stupid. It's not like there were people trying to assassinate the Water-lord back when Mizutou was _built, _were there? It was built like a billion years ago."

"Hardly," Sasuke said. He started walking again, much more briskly. "People build mazes to keep other people out. Maybe the Mist weren't always on good terms with the civilians of the Water Country."

"_Oi, _wait up!" Naruto complained. "Why're you going so fast? Did you finally figure out where you're going?"

Sasuke turned a corner and stepped through a doorway onto an outdoor terrace. The sun was shining softly through the morning mists, which slanted downward between the buildings and into the courtyard in front of him.

"I remember this courtyard," he finally replied. "We're going to cross it, then the next, and beyond that is the gate."

Naruto frowned, taking the slightest of steps back from Sasuke. Leaving the palace was something he knew Kakashi would be firmly against. "Uh, hey, we're supposed to lay low. If someone notices your hand they might---"

Sasuke gave no sign that he was angry. None, that was, save the tension visible in the line of his neck, which Naruto could see from behind because Sasuke wasn't wearing his usual high collar. But Naruto tensed as well, not sure what was to come next.

"We're _supposed _to be _useful_," the dark-haired Genin said quietly. "You _want_ to be useful . . . right? I'm going out as 'myself' to find a map. I think there's more to this place than the Heikou let on. You can go hide in the room. Or you can follow me." He took a suggestive step away from Naruto, into the soft light of the courtyard.

Something about the sight of Sasuke's receding back was an icy touch down Naruto's spine. The cold finger of premonition.

Pressing his lips together grimly, Naruto hurried after.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

"Those two?"

"Those two."

"Konoha _shinobi. _What are they searching for in the city?"

"They'll find nothing. Or things will move too swiftly for them to even begin understanding. It doesn't matter, with the recent developments. Once the Water-lord is dead, all the Mist will need are the children. And the body of Hatake Kakashi."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Sakura attended breakfast with Kakashi, feeling very much out of place. The table to which she sat down that morning was very different from Naruto and Sasuke's Spartan fare. The Water-lord ate at a long table in an ornate hall lined with what looked like gold statues of various gods and goddesses and heroes from old stories. In between the statues, Heikou swordsmen stood at attention, looking like statues themselves.

Sakura had to sit at a place next to Kakashi---who sat at the head in full royal attire and _genjutsu_---because she was supposed to be the daughter of the Water-lord's guest, "Shigure," who wasn't able to attend. Sakura was attending in his place, as befit a good lord's daughter. It meant she was supposed to make conversation and appear to be what she was dressed as.

It meant she found herself seated across from a very beautiful woman with blond hair, blue eyes, and breasts that made themselves apparent even though the woman wore an _obi. _She wore her hair loose, with no ornaments, but her kimono was a rich dark blue, the color of the night sky. This, Sakura had recently learned, was the Water-lord's wife.

She smiled sweetly at Sakura. Sakura tried to smile back just as sweetly, but there was something shrewd in the woman's gaze she didn't like.

"You must have had a terribly damp journey, dear," the woman remarked, picking up her chopsticks and angling them toward her plate. "The weather has been terrible lately, with all the rain. And I hear you rounded the coast?"

Sakura opened her mouth to agree politely, but she caught a slight warning shift of Kakashi's thick, bejeweled fingers. Then she realized that the Water-lord's wife had asked something odd. Kakashi had told the Water-lord and several of the most prominent Heikou captains about the peril they'd faced while rounding the coast, but no one else. The few Heikou were purportedly keeping Kakashi's confidence, and the Water-lord's wife had had no contact with her husband since Kakashi's arrival, according to the Heikou. She should not have known about it; someone had a loose tongue.

"We did journey by sea, but not rounding the coast, Mizutou-_sama_," Sakura replied carefully. "There was a storm. Then our escorts were attacked in the harbor."

"Oh, call me Chizuru-_chan,_" the woman tittered, waving her free hand languidly. "My husband does. But really . . ." She leaned forward, looking Sakura straight in the eye. "I am indeed grateful that you were not forced to round the coast. The Mist have small outposts there, and it might not have been safe . . . for you."

Sakura had no idea what to make of this rather peculiar bit of conversation. Quickly she filled her mouth with seafood to stall for time while she formulated a reply.

Kakashi saved her. "The _shinobi _Shigure-_sama _hired to escort he and his daughter returned safely to the Wave Country. As for the Mist . . . From what I've heard, I'm not so certain the Mist _are_ the assassins." His eyes flickered left, then right, gauging the reactions of the Heikou standing watch. But the guards only stood poker straight and silent.

"Come now, Husband, you needn't hide everything from me," Chizuru murmured coyly, watching him. "I know you've hired two young ninja from the Fire Country to protect you. Even if I can't see where they are." Her blue-eyed gaze swept the length of the room. Then she smiled again, looking straight across the table at Sakura.

Sakura pretended to have been studying the statue behind the Water-lord's wife. It was a goddess with six breasts. And pointy nipples. _"The Water-lord seriously needs to see a shrink," _the Inner Sakura remarked.

"Sakura-_san_," Kakashi addressed her, "if you will, please deliver this message to your father: 'Should you feel in better health this morning, please feel free to visit the Heikou _dojo _to observe my men at their training. It is quite the sight to see.'"

Sakura found herself meeting Chizuru's gaze once again. There was something almost predatory about the way the woman stared at a person; as if she could see right through them. "I will," she answered Kakashi.

After breakfast, Kakashi _henge_'d in a bathroom, and then he and Sakura set out for the _dojo _as Shigure and his daughter.

With a third party.

Chizuru accompanied them. Sakura found herself trailing along like a third wheel after 'Shigure' and the Water-lord's wife, who walked with her arm linked through Kakashi's.

"_LEAVE US THE HELL ALONE!" _the Inner Sakura ranted. The woman was quite obviously attracted to . . . well, Sakura wasn't sure just which person Chizuru was after. Either Kakashi or Shigure---neither of whom were her husband.

Fortunately, the walk to the _dojo _wasn't very long, and she soon found other scenery to study.

The _dojo's _long sliding panel doors were open, and the cold sea breeze wafted through the place. The place was full of Heikou, training and sparring with each other. Sakura seated herself on a bench just inside the door.

It was interesting, watching them. Watching the _kenjutsu _experts at their work, she came to appreciate just how much a normal human body was capable of, without the aid of _chakra _molding. Kakashi watched them just as intently from a bench nearby. For the longest time he didn't move or speak, and Sakura could see that Chizuru was becoming bored. After several failed attempts to engage the Jounin in conversation, she finally contented herself with seating herself as close to him as possible, allowing the rounded side of one breast to brush his shoulder.

Briefly, Sakura glanced down at her own breasts. Then she sighed, looking elsewhere.

"_You can't grow melons from raisins," _the Inner Sakura railed at the Outer one. _"Stop worrying about that woman and look for possible assassins!"_

And she did.

But after about twenty minutes, Kakashi still seemed intent upon monitoring the goings-on of the _dojo, _and Sakura wasn't feeling well. The bandages round her middle were starting to chafe, and the wounded place in her side was burning a little. She thought she might feel better if she stood up, because then the bandages might not dig into her skin as much. Standing up, however, proved to be the end of one problem and the cause of the next. Her head reeled as she rose, and she became aware of the sweat trickling between her shoulder blades and down the backs of her knees.

Almost automatically, Sakura turned toward Kakashi, opening her mouth to tell him she was going to nip out for some fresh air. Then she noticed that he had shifted the mantle over his face aside ever so slightly.

Uncovering his left eye.

Sakura knew what that meant. She didn't know why he was even risking such a thing, but she did know instinctively that if she said anything to him at all now, it would draw at least Chizuru's attention to his face, and that could be disastrous. So instead she turned and slipped quietly out the door.

Outside the air was damp and light and cool, and it did do her some good. The dizziness subsided a little, and her face didn't feel as hot. Breathing deeply and slowly, Sakura meandered round the _dojo _terrace, occasionally brushing a hand across the plain wood pillars along the way and hoping that whatever Kakashi was looking for, he would find it quickly. She wasn't used to feeling awful when she was this far away from home.

'_I guess I'm still just a kid,' _she thought, rounding a corner. Sucking in a shorter breath, she lifted her chin, squaring her shoulders. _'But I should still act strong. I don't want to be a burden.'_

It was true that Sakura had, for the past two days, been entertaining fantasies about fainting into Sasuke's arms so that he could whisper into her ear how it was going to be all right and how she felt feverish and how of course he would sleep holding her so she could stay warm . . . But now reality had settled in, and she was well aware that being injured was no picnic and to hell with waiting for Sasuke to catch her if she fainted, she wanted _drugs. _

It was with these thoughts rolling through her mind that she turned the corner and found herself in a secluded courtyard behind the _dojo_. There was a young man practicing _kenjutsu _out on the grass, but no one else was around. Sakura kept walking, but she found her gaze drawn to him. His movements with the sword were very different from the ones Kakashi and Shikyo used. He spun with it, slicing it upward left, then downward right in arcs that seemed graceful but in reality would have taken off heads and slit throats. His movements, in fact, seemed so precise that Sakura could imagine he was slicing the fine grains of moisture that formed the mist in two with every stroke.

"My son, Toru," someone said quietly.

Sakura turned quickly and found that the Heikou captain Moritome had come to stand her on the _dojo _terrace. He hadn't come soundlessly; now that she saw him she realized she'd heard his soft footsteps across the wood. It was just that she'd been too intent on watching the swordsman in the courtyard.

"Your---your son?" she stammered, flustered because she'd let down her guard. "Is Toru-_sama _a soldier as well, then?" Even though Moritome knew who she really was, Sakura hoped desperately that she sounded like a Thunder Country lord's daughter was supposed to sound; Kakashi hadn't exactly had the opportunity to school her in etiquette.

"To you we may seem cruel and biased, because we don't trust your kind," Moritome said abruptly. His gaze slid from her to the more distant figure of his son, who was oblivious to all but his _kenjutsu _practice. The tall Heikou captain sighed. "But don't think us ignorant. Our hatred if _shinobi _is born of bitterness, not fear. The Heikou are actually the remnant of what was once a proud tradition. Once upon a time, before your kind began appearing and rising to power, warriors were men and women called samurai, who wielded swords and human strength to protect their own."

Sakura blinked. _'Why does he word it so weird? "Rise to power"? Shinobi don't rule the world . . .' _Aloud, she asked, carefully, "So that's why the Heikou are so devoted, isn't it? But my team hasn't come to insult you by doing your job for you; we've come to your aid because we believe in protecting your lord just like you do."

"Beautiful, isn't he?" Moritome murmured, eyes still resting on his son. Sakura glanced up at him in surprise. His usually cold blue eyes seemed a little sad.

She didn't understand why. But she looked at the young man in the courtyard again, whose blade flashed in the morning sun. And she answered, "He is."

"There you are, Sakura." Kakashi's voice startled her. Sakura turned to him quickly, wondering just how much he'd heard.

His eye was smiling at her, in such a way that she knew he _had_ heard---and that he'd found something.

"Ah, yes, it was hot inside the _dojo_," she replied carefully, not wanting to say anything to draw Moritome's suspicion to her Sensei.

For some reason, Moritome seemed more intent upon glaring at Chizuru, who was still latched onto Kakashi's elbow. The Heikou captain merely bowed politely to them both, and then stalked off down the length of the terrace, rounded a corner and disappeared.

"How are you feeling, Daughter?" Kakashi asked, stepping a little ways ahead of the strumpet glued to his side to get a little space. The eye lost its twinkle and went dead serious, and suddenly Sakura felt her stomach plummet right down to her newly-purchased, expensive wooden sandals. Something was wrong, the eye was saying. Something was amiss. And that something was going to have to be dealt with soon.

But there was a complication; the Water-lord's wife was with them, and they couldn't hold council in private. If they attempted _shinobi _tricks to evade her, she could well cause problems for them by spreading word of their identities. Sakura didn't trust the woman, and she doubted Kakashi did, either.

"I---I'm fine, _Otou-san_," Sakura answered, managing a shaky little laugh. "It's just the food here was richer than I'm used to."

Kakashi shrugged Chizuru's hand off his arm entirely, taking Sakura firmly by the shoulder.

"I think you need your medicine," he corrected her in a low voice. "It's in your quarters."

Mutely, Sakura nodded. Better to shut her mouth and play along when he was the only one who knew what was going on.

"If you will excuse us," Kakashi told Chizuru politely over one shoulder, "my daughter's health, you understand."

The Water-lord's wife didn't even blink. "Of course," she agreed, smiling sweetly. When Kakashi turned to go, she managed to give his backside a pat before he'd moved beyond reach.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

By evening, Naruto and Sasuke were seated on the bed in the room again, having already slept for several hours after their foray into the city. Sasuke was poring over the large map scroll spread across the mattress, rubbing incessantly at his nonexistent beard and trying to ignore Naruto's fidgeting. Naruto was bored and well-rested---a bad combination, Sasuke knew. As a last resort, he'd already tried convincing Naruto to have another go at the nightingale floor, but by this point---having eaten nothing since breakfast---both were so hungry exercise was not a viable option. Neither boy had decided to risk using _shinobi _techniques to steal food from the city market; both felt that somehow that was a violation of contract. Honorability did have its drawbacks.

Namely, that hunger made Naruto restless.

And it made Sasuke waspish.

''Look, why don't you go try to find us some food in the Heikou mess hall?'' Sasuke finally snapped, jerking his head toward the door. "Kakashi might have his hands full and not be able to bring us anything back."

"Fine," Naruto muttered, scuffing a line of G-notes to the door.

Just as his fingertips brushed the wood panel, it began to slide open.

"_Shit," _Sasuke swore under his breath. He grabbed hold of the map and disappeared under the bed with it. Naruto, who anticipated another long night on ceiling duty and had no desire to start it this early, ran, tucked and rolled under the bed after Sasuke.

"It's us; it's safe," someone said. The voice was unmistakably Sakura's, but she sounded very out of sorts.

Sasuke and Naruto emerged from their hiding place, dust-bunnies clinging to their clothes.

"Why didn't you come through the door from Shigure's chambers?" Sasuke asked, peering at his _sensei _and teammate curiously. "Wouldn't anyone who sees you think it's odd that a foreign diplomat and his daughter are strolling straight into the Water-lord's bedroom?"

"Sasuke, how do you feel?" Kakashi asked, ignoring the question. "Show me your hand."

Sasuke scowled, but obliged him. Kakashi immediately set to unwrapping the bandages on the proffered palm. What he found brought a shadow to his brow.

"Someone," he said, "is trying to force our hand."

Puzzled, Naruto and Sakura moved closer to peer down at Sasuke's palm. The wound looked worse, if anything. Ugly, purple striations were beginning to appear on the skin, radiating outward from the wound. They looked like bruises, except bruises didn't spread like that.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked in a low voice. His eyes upon his Sensei were grim and resentful.

Kakashi sighed. "I know the look of this wound. Sakura's, too. I've seen it before, a long time ago when I took the Chuunin Exam in the Hidden Village of Mist."

Naruto's mouth fell open. "Why'd you take the Chuunin Exam in the WATER country, Kakashi-_sensei_?"

Kakashi waved the matter aside. "Both of you were wounded by the same person, right? That _kunoichi _with the spines? She was probably one of the Aoite Clan."

This time Sakura interrupted. "You mean 'Aoite' like the road we were on?"

Sasuke kept silent. He was torn between wanting his teammates to shut up so Kakashi could explain and wishing Kakashi would stop reminding him that _he _was the one wounded when Naruto was standing there perfectly healthy and strong and---

"The Aoite Road was named after the clan, because centuries ago the Mist attempted to invade the Fire Country," Kakashi went on. "That was the route the invaders took. But the name isn't important. The Aoite Clan is famous for its poisons. Its members are able to create and secrete poison through their pores like sweat. From the look of your hand, Sasuke, I'd say there's little doubt where that _kunoichi _was from. And the poison . . . the bruise pattern tells me that it's a potentially deadly type, but a slow-acting one. If an antidote is administered before the bruising spreads all the way up to the chest, the threat will be over. However . . . only the Aoite Clan themselves are able to produce the antidote. And the Aoite are like the Hyuuga---a trump card of the Village, whose secrets and members are guarded from outside intrusion . . . Which brings me to a rather obtrusive problem."

Naruto and Sakura just stared at him expectantly, but Sasuke had an inkling. "The Mist _want _us to go to their Village? They're using our need for an antidote to draw us away from the Water-lord?"

Kakashi unwrapped the mantle from his head and let it drop carelessly to the floor. He wore his mask over nose and mouth, but his Sharingan eye was left exposed. "I have many theories," he replied. "None of them good for our case; each more confusing than the last." As the Jounin walked over and sat down on the bed, Sasuke was struck by the realization of just how tired his Sensei was. Kakashi's normal eye looked glassy and bloodshot.

"What I meant when I said 'force our hand' is that I think someone very desperately wants the Mist to know that Leaf Ninja are present here," Kakashi went on. He sighed again, running his fingers through his gray hair and managing to rumple it further.

"That makes no sense," Sakura cut in. "If the Aoite Clan were really the ones who attacked us, then the Mist already _know _we're here. Why would they want us to go to _them_?"

"To draw us away from the Water-lord," Sasuke told her impatiently. "You and I wouldn't be able to find the Village on our own; we'd need Kakashi-_sensei, _who's already been there."

Naruto shook his head, perplexed. "Hey, but wouldn't that still leave me here? Why didn't they use this poison on _me_?"

Kakashi didn't answer, but fixed Naruto with a particularly meaningful stare. Sasuke noted the silent exchange with narrowed eyes; it probably had something to with Naruto's regenerative abilities, but apparently this was a secret Kakashi wasn't going to share with the rest of them.

'_Well, whatever,' _Sasuke thought, dismissing it. _'The Mist must've left Naruto un-poisoned because they know he's a screw-up.'_

"There's a problem with that, though," Kakashi continued. "Even though it was definitely Mist _shinobi _who attacked us on the cliffs, they may have been a group of renegades---like Zabuza was. Otherwise, like Sakura said, they wouldn't be so desperate to make us go to the Mist on our own. Somehow, I think the governing parties in the actual Mist Village _still _don't know we're here. And there's another problem . . . the Heikou. I don't trust them. I used my left eye for a little experiment, because I've become somewhat suspicious of the Heikou. Sakura and I went to the _dojo _with the lady of Mizutou. We watched the swordsmen train. I was curious, you see, because as you've all noticed by now some of the Heikou seem to have _shinobi _reflexes."

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at Kakashi as if he were the one postulating the idea. "The guards at the gates, when Shikyo brought us into the palace walls!"

"I saw nothing in the _dojo,_" Kakashi informed him. "I think they may have been being careful because they knew who I was. Or they didn't know who I was, and they were innocent. But _outside . . ._"

"Toru!" Sakura said suddenly. "Moritome's son was---"

"Your eyes weren't fooling you," Kakashi told her. "He was using _kenjutsu, _all right, but with thick streams of _chakra _flowing from his arms into the blade. Moritome's son, Toru, is a _shinobi._"

Three jaws dropped, this time Sasuke's included.

"Tha-that's---he's---even though the Heikou _hate _us?" Naruto stammered, obviously struggling against a barrage of questions that were trying to push and shove their way out his mouth. "The Heikou hate us! They think we're 'unnatural'; you remember what Shikyo-_san _said!"

"And that's the problem," Kakashi agreed. "Moritome's son may not be the only _shinobi _among them. It may be that the Heikou themselves are the assassins."

"Maybe the Mist planted spies among the Heikou?" Sasuke suggested.

"Shikyo-_san _would've seen through them, though, wouldn't he?" Sakura argued.

"I don't think we should trust that guy," Naruto warned. "Besides, he's gone AWOL. For all we know, he's gone to report to the Mist."

"He's definitely one of the Rain ninja," Kakashi argued, shaking his head. "He possesses his clan's bloodline limit. Which, if he _is _a traitor, means---"

"A Mist-Rain alliance," Naruto and Sasuke said at once.

Kakashi blinked at them, surprised. "Well, you two certainly seem sharp. You must have had sleep. But regardless of who is responsible for our difficulties . . . the difficulties themselves require action." He took a deep breath, and then said in a low voice, "If we don't go to the Mist, you two will die. If we go to the Mist, the Water-lord remains unguarded---I don't trust the Heikou to keep him alive. This---Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke---is where as a leader you have to make hard decisions."

The three Genin waited, holding their breath.

Their Sensei straightened, squaring his shoulders. "Sakura and I will go to the Mist. Naruto and Sasuke will stay here, to continue carrying out the mission for which we were hired."

Silence.

And then: "You're leaving me behind?" Sasuke struggled to keep his expression calm and complacent, but felt the anger twitching muscles in his jaw. "Why not leave Sakura with Naruto? She's in much worse shape than I am; she needs to rest."

Kakashi spared him a brief, measuring glance. "That wouldn't make much sense, now, would it? She's wounded closer to the heart than you are. The bruising will soon spread into her chest. You may have about a week to live at the rate yours is spreading; she probably has less than two days."

Sakura blanched at this, and Sasuke paled a bit as well. He wasn't a selfish person, after all. Just a driven one.

"When are you going to leave?" Naruto asked, looking distinctly uneasy. He kept stealing worried, darting glances at Sasuke.

Sasuke noticed, of course, and it did nothing to improve his mood. _'What, does HE not think I'm reliable now, either? It's this HAND . . .' _He felt as if his body were betraying him. He felt he'd rather cut it off than be the burden that forced Kakashi to go to the Mist as their enemies wished.

"Now," Kakashi answered blithely, in a manner all three Genin felt was way too lighthearted for someone about to go venturing into enemy territory to get an antidote.

"In the _dark_?" Sakura protested, blanching even more. "But if the Mist Village is somewhere north of here, we'll be tripping through the jungle! Or, rather, tripping _over _the jungle."

Kakashi stood up, pulling his mantle back round his neck. "I've decided. It's a risk I'm willing to take." He wound it deftly round his head. "At any rate," he added, in a voice muffled by cloth, "I _won't_ lose comrades to this mission. And Mizutou won't lose its lord." To Sakura, he said, "That long skirt will be a bother. Cut it. The sleeves, too." He handed her a _katana. _

Sakura began a brisk, businesslike hacking of the skirt, but she looked doubtful. "Sensei, won't I be cold? The fog---"

"The cooler you keep your body, the slower the poison will spread," Kakashi told her. "The same goes for you, Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded grimly.

"'Cause if you faint I'm not doing mouth-to-mouth," Naruto asserted, folding his arms and looking a bit cross. "Besides, it's not like anything's going to _happen_ tonight, is it? Just another night under the bed . . ."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Twenty minutes later, Kakashi and Sakura were gone, and Naruto was bored. Sasuke was equally restless. The Uchiha was pacing back and forth, carrying the map he'd acquired with him and squinting at it. The only lights they'd agreed to put on were the ones on the bed itself---the ones that shone creepily through the swans' eyes---because the switch could be flipped easier without anyone entering the room taking notice. Unfortunately, this meant semidarkness and creepy swan-eyes glaring across the room.

"_Oi. _Sasuke. Why do you keep studying that thing, anyway?" Naruto finally demanded, plunking down on the bed. "So the city looks like a maze. Are you looking for cheese?"

"There's something about the pattern of the maze, though," Sasuke muttered. "It almost seems like there's a center to it . . ."

"Cheese," Naruto insisted, falling backward onto the mattress with a plop. "Geez, this is so boring. All this _waiting_ . . ."

Sasuke finally paused in his pacing and looked askance at his teammate. "Why don't you stop complaining and figure out what you're going to do about the Water-lord's wife?"

Naruto's face contorted into a grimace, and he sat up in a hurry as if the bed had burned him. "SHIT! I forgot! _Oi, _Sasuke, why can't YOU be Kakashi? Or the double? Or whoever it is that's taking the Water-lord's place that she seems to want to grind into the bedsprings?"

Sasuke went back to his map studies in a hurry. "I'm supposed to keep cool, remember?"

Naruto made a noise of frustration, rumpling his spiky hair between his fingers like a dog scratching at fleas. "_Gah! _Why am _I _stuck with her?"

"Come to think of it . . ." Sasuke looked up again, stopping dead in his tracks. "Where _is _she?"

For a moment, both boys regarded each other in mutual disquiet. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw a shadow cross over the line of light at the bottom of the chamber door. "_Hide!" _he breathed.

Sasuke heard, and dived for the bed. Naruto sprang off the mattress, missed the ceiling and landed on the chandelier. For a moment he flailed, and the chandelier swung. Then he shinnied up the chain and situated himself on the ceiling directly above it. _'DAMNIT!' _he thought, gritting his teeth as he looked down. _'Stop SWINGING, stupid chandelier! They'll see me . . .'_

The person who entered the room was not Chizuru. It was a man carrying a sword. He shut the door behind him with a smart _clack._

He was a young man, with a handsome face and a steady stance. He looked up at the chandelier swinging, then at the gleaming swan-eyes. "I'm Toru of the Heikou," he said calmly. "My father sent me to be the Water-lord's double tonight. The lady will be joining us shortly, I believe."

Naruto said nothing, even though the young man obviously knew he and Sasuke were there. For once he kept his mouth shut, waiting to see what this person would do. This _shinobi _who pretended not to be one.

"You needn't pretend not to exist," Toru continued mildly, running a hand down the _katana _blade and making it sing. "My father saw fit to inform me of the current situation. I know Konoha has sent a four-man team to give us aid. And I'm glad you're here."

When neither Naruto nor Sasuke offered any reply, Toru shrugged and sat down on the bed, laying the sword across his knees. "But . . ." He seemed puzzled; his brows knit in a faint frown. "Where are the others? The girl was injured, I'm told. And I don't see the Jounin who leads you. Is he keeping watch over the girl?"

No one was given the opportunity to answer, because the Water-lord's wife chose that moment to make her entrance.

"Chizuru-_sama_," Toru greeted her, rising from his seat and ushering her in. "You mustn't linger in the doorway with your back to the hall."

The Water-lord's wife stopped short when she saw what she deemed to be no one else in the room. Her eyes narrowed, and Naruto saw a look on her face that had nothing to do with being a temptress and a flirt. It was the look she'd given Kakashi when she checked him for weapons, before the whole dry-humping incident. Fear. And shrewd notice of detail.

"Where," she asked slowly, "is the Leaf ninja?"

No one present saw Toru move---not even Sasuke, who hadn't activated his _dojutsu. _One instant the Heikou swordsman's hand was at her elbow, gently guiding her into the room. The next, he held the blade at her throat.

"Leaf ninja," he said mildly, looking straight up at Naruto now. "If you so much as twitch, you won't have time to stop my sword."

Naruto swallowed hard. As perverted as the woman was, it was his duty to protect her, and he wasn't doing a very good job. Also, something struck him as odd. "What is it you want?" he asked, without moving from his eyrie. "For us to give ourselves up to you? Or to the Mist?"

The swordsman didn't answer; he was backing toward the door.

"_I'm _the one he wants!" Chizuru cried, abruptly, heedless of the sword-edge less than an inch from her neck. "_He_ doesn't know where the Water-lord_ is_!"

In a flash, Sasuke was out from under the bed, charging. At first Naruto was too surprised to react. Then he realized that if the swordsman needed the woman, then he obviously wasn't going to carry out his threat to kill her. He scurried along the ceiling on all fours, heading for the wall with the door.

Clasping the Water-lord's wife against him, Toru sprang backwards and reached the door first. Someone slid it open for him, and he disappeared into the torch-lit hallway beyond. Then the door slid shut again, and once again Naruto found himself maneuvering in semidarkness. He rose into a horizontal standing position and went tearing down the wall, making for the door.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke shouted in warning.

Naruto skidded to a halt and changed directions on a dime, just in time to avoid something sharp and cold that went whistling past his face. Blinking to adjust his eyes to the dim lighting, he realized that someone was standing in the shadow of the doorway. He couldn't tell who it was; the person was clothed entirely in black and wore a mask with a blue double-helix painted on it. Sasuke was rushing the man, weaponless but forming hand-seals at breakneck speed.

"SASUKE!" Naruto yelled at him, "KAKASHI-_SENSEI_ SAID NOT TO USE---"

"Shut UP!" Sasuke snarled. He raised two steepled fingers to his lips and blew. Pellets of fire, like an angry swarm of bees, engulfed their attacker.

But Naruto, who by this time had jumped down from wall to floor, focused his attention on what lay behind Sasuke. The light of the Katon_ jutsu _had just illuminated what the swan-eye lights didn't reveal: the shadowy shapes of many black-swathed figures, crouched spider-like in the dark corners of the ceiling; a dozen blue helices on white ovals turned his way. He thought he caught a gleam of metal; they carried _katana. _

Sasuke's target dodged the fireballs and landed Sasuke with a roundhouse kick that sent him flying backward, toward the center of the room. Away from the door and potential escape.

"Naruto! Get to the hall and stop Toru!" Sasuke cried, bracing himself with one hand so that he slid to a halt. A long, rippling string of G-notes echoed from where his feet had struck the tiles.

"We're NOT splitting up AGAIN!" Naruto fired back. "That's what they want!"

He rushed the one who'd kicked Sasuke, gritting his teeth and preparing a punch of his own.

But it seemed one of the assassins had landed on the bed and found the switch. The swans' eyes flickered out, and the room was plunged into darkness.

And then, from every direction, there came the tinkling notes of tiles singing.

**END OF CHAPTER 7**

_Yamisui: Um, yeah. Sorry this chapter took so long to write; I'm stupidly trying to work on another Naruto fic at the same time. But it IS long, so I get some leeway for that, at least. I had to make this chapter lay ass-loads of groundwork because all hell is going to break loose again and I prefer that there be a point and a reason for all that hell. Next chapter: "Into the Mist."_


	8. Into The Mist

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**o o Chapter 8: Into The Mist o o**

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Two figures slipped quietly down the slope beyond the walls of Mizutou in the hour before dawn, when the mist had come rolling in between the gaps in the southern cliffs and plunged the valleys into shadow. To Sakura, who was very tired, the ease with which they'd escaped the city was a great relief. Kakashi, however, seemed all the more grim for it. When Sakura remarked on it, his only response was, "It was too easily done. It must be what they want."

Sakura shook her head, bemused.

The downhill trek was long and slippery; the moisture in the air made the undergrowth slick and treacherous. The mist was also thickening steadily. Thanks to the wan light from the approaching sunrise Sakura could just make out Kakashi's lean figure hiking in front of her, but the landscape beyond was blurred and indistinct. They were descending into a valley between mountain walls---a valley so deep the low clouds pooled in it like a blue-gray sea. Here and there the tops of bamboo groves spiked upward from it, and dark green treetops rose in mounds above it like small islands. Sakura noticed that some of these were dotted with red.

"I guess even islands have autumn leaves," she observed.

Kakashi's eyes roamed the valley. "Those are flowers."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Within the hour, they had hiked down into the thickest of the fog. By this point Kakashi had started hearing her feet stumble every three paces. He knew it wasn't the steepness of the place but the poison at work. He had made a point of asking her every half hour or so for a detailed description of how she felt, which he knew scared her but it couldn't be helped. He knew the symptoms of the Aoite toxin, and he was using her reaction to it as a gauge to measure just how much time they had. It was a clock---for both Sakura and Sasuke.

They were just one hour out of Mizutou when he'd first noted her balance was off.

'_Disorientation, fever, shock, convulsions, then death,' _he told himself grimly, listing the stages in his mind. _'We have one day.'_

"Sakura, come here." Kakashi stopped on the slope and sank carefully into a crouch. She bumped into him and almost tripped. Fortunately, he caught her hands before she could somersault over him. "Get on."

Sakura obliged without protest. Kakashi stood up, shifting his shoulders to get her settled on his back. He could feel her heart beating, and knew from the pace that it was still within the normal, safe rhythm. If it sped up and stayed that way, she would die within an hour.

"Hold onto my neck," he ordered. He pulled his _hitae ate _up to uncover the Sharingan eye, which he'd concealed when they left Mizutou. He had the distinct premonition that he was going to need it.

Then he took off down the slope, using _shinobi _speed.

Moisture struck his face above the nose, but he didn't allow himself the luxury of squinting to keep it out. They were plunging down through the mist layer now at a breakneck pace. Kakashi's light footsteps alternately squelched in mud and rustled through wet grass. Then the landscape grew steeper, and the knee-deep greenery gave way to a slicker carpet of lime green moss. By this change Kakashi knew they were approaching the valley floor. At one point his foot landed with a splash and almost slid dangerously on a rock.

"A stream?" Sakura murmured behind him. "I hear water."

Kakashi could hear it as well, and felt slightly relieved because he knew exactly where they were.

"There's a waterfall to our right," he told her. "Mizutou is named for the ten waterfalls in this valley. This is the first of them."

After another minute or so, the water-song grew louder, and just as Kakashi had expected they soon plunged through the last layer of mist and into the dark green wood below. His footfalls finally landed on flat, springy turf, and to his right a small pool burbled glassily amid the screen of foliage. They'd reached the valley floor.

"Get a drink," Kakashi ordered softly, setting Sakura down beside the pool. "We'll be moving fast."

She threw him a brief, questioning glance, but then she seemed to realize the reason for his concern with haste. She blanched and turned to bend over the water. While she drank, Kakashi surveyed the forest ahead. Unlike in the Fire Country's forests, the Water Country's slender trees grew together in thickets. Ferns curled and stretched their tendrils across the ground, obscuring it from view. In short, there was an abundance of places where the Mist could have laid traps.

Somewhere off in the distant green darkness, a stick cracked. Then another. He tensed.

"I'm done," Sakura informed him, straightening and swiping water off her mouth.

As Kakashi knelt so she could climb back onto his back, she added, "I wonder how Sasuke and Naruto are doing."

Kakashi pressed his lips together grimly beneath the mask. As his subordinate's arms wrapped themselves trustingly over his shoulders, he rose to stand and pulled his _hitae ate _up from the Sharingan eye.

"Sakura," he said in a low voice, "from here on out, don't say anything. We're being watched."

He felt her nod. Satisfied, he started off into the trees. Vines trailing along the forest floor snagged at his feet. When they broke it was with the wet sound of tearing leaves.

It sounded like thunder to his ears.

After the third time he caught himself looking up at the green canopy above he shook his head; it was wishful thinking. The branches above were so entangled that traversing them in the manner of Konoha _shinobi _would be even slower than walking on the ground. He gritted his teeth.

'_But every twig, every stem I break is a glaring sign to tell the Mist where I've passed.'_

Another hour passed.

Then he came to realize all his stealth had been for nothing.

The _shinobi _trailing him were so well concealed Kakashi couldn't locate them at all. But he knew they were there the instant the mist began to creep in between the trees. Ordinarily, as far into the forest as he was the low clouds would not move swiftly at all, let alone penetrate some of the dense thickets he'd pushed his way through. But the increase of chill and damp in the air was so sudden Kakashi noticed it immediately. White ribbons of cloud slid past his body as he walked.

He would have preferred to stop and call out to the ones following him, to make his intentions known at once and to clear up the mystery of theirs. As a former member of ANBU, he was well aware of the disadvantage he was at not knowing their locations. However, if these were _shinobi _operating on their own, without the consent of the Mist Village, it would be best to put off confronting them until he was within sight of the actual village. In that case he could present direct evidence to the Mist of a conspiracy.

He drew in a deep breath. The first priority, at any rate, was to make it to the Mist alive.

"_Konoha no Senpuu!" _he shouted.

The surrounding wood was suddenly filled with the hiss of leaves, and the crackling thrash of branches. The gale-force wind spun the mist tendrils until they dispersed altogether amid the flying twigs and snapping vines. Kakashi had channeled a large amount of _chakra _into the _jutsu, _knowing if he didn't it wouldn't be effective as a diversionary tactic. Sakura's arms tightened convulsively as something shining whizzed past both their faces.

A _shuriken. _It had been deflected at the last second by the wind; otherwise it would have taken both their heads.

Kakashi was off like a bolt from a bow. Branches whipped past his face, snagged in his clothing. He immediately found sprinting along the ground to be out of the question; the undergrowth snared his ankles and thighs, snapping apart with bruising force as he surged forward against them. They were traps---living traps set by the Mist.

But he wasn't aware of the second _shuriken _hurtling toward him until it was too late. At the last instant he heard the deadly whistle of steel through air. And a harsh _clang. _Heart pounding, he glanced over one shoulder and saw two things: the first, that Sakura had just deflected the flying blade with a _kunai _in one hand. It was the only reason their heads weren't rolling across the forest floor. The second: their pursuers were gaining on them. Dark shapes came hurtling through the midst.

Once, again Kakashi's hand was being forced. Gathering _chakra _into his feet---precious _chakra, _which he'd been reserving for Chidori---he launched himself sideways in a ninety-degree flip, landed hard against the bark of a tree in a crouch, and then shot up the trunk.

Sakura's chin pressed into the hollow at the back of his neck to avoid being blinded by the branches. Sticks snapped off against Kakashi's shoulders, though he ran at a crouch. Above him, he could see the green canopy lightening. Then he burst through a haze of leaves, spraying gathered dew every which way.

He paused there, poised on the knife-point of the topmost branch. It swayed beneath him as a cold wind stirred the trees in the valley, swishing leaves all around him in a deafening sigh, like the forest awakening.

And in between the trees, roiling toward them from all directions, came the mist. Swift as the surging tides.

Kakashi's gut clenched.

From beneath him came the staccato snap of branches. He looked down.

Something shot up the trunk of the tree, making straight for his perch.

He sprang off the branch point and took off across the treetops.

From the very first step he took, the needles began to fly. He felt the light branch bend beneath the ball of his foot, ever so slightly. It was followed by a crackle from below, then the whine of silver points shooting upward in an absurd inverted rain.

_They've rigged every large tree? The whole forest is a trap!_

However, even as tension coursed hot through his veins, and needles rose in such volumes his very clothes were being shredded from his body in minute slivers, he remained cool-headed and clear-sighted.

_More chakra. If I use more chakra, I can be even more light-footed. The traps have a limit to the amount of force required, or they'd go off with every breeze . . ._

His legs were on fire. Countless scratches up his shins, and places in his knees where the needles had lodged and bled trickles down his calves. Kakashi was eminently grateful that he'd donned more durable breeches with inner armor in select places; otherwise he might have suffered a hit to the groin. But soon he had gathered enough surplus _chakra _in his feet so that the light branches scarcely moved.

Sure enough, after a few more paces the needles stopped, and he was able to lengthen his stride. Kakashi wanted to ask Sakura if she was all right, but dared not. She was still holding on to him tightly, and her breath wasn't erratic, so he was forced to content himself with that.

The ocean of trees had narrowed to a green river, which the Jounin was following northeast now. The cliffs closed in on either side to form a crescent-shaped canyon, which if followed to the point where it dead-ended should lead him to the Mist Village.

As he rounded the curve of the crescent, he finally caught sight of the falls at its end---a long, silver ribbon cascading from the higher peaks to below the tree line. The village, if memory served, lay at its base.

As he drew nearer to it, he noticed that the forest below had gone eerily quiet.

Periodic glances downward showed him that the forest floor was still engulfed in mist.

'_Why have they stopped?' _he wondered, highly uneasy. _'Why the converging mist, the charge, the needles . . . and then nothing?'_

He soon realized why.

At first he'd attributed the numbness in his fingertips to the climate. The sun had finally climbed above the horizon line of the eastern cliffs, but the day was gray and gloomy, with a damp quality to the air that could chill even the hardiest traveler to the bone. Then he tried flexing his fingers and found they wouldn't obey him. Frowning, he brought his arms forward to regard his hands. He had been running in the _shinobi _manner, with arms held horizontal behind him; perhaps the position had tweaked a nerve . . .

He might have dismissed it as such. Save for the fact that when he looked down at his hands, his eyes couldn't seem to focus.

**END OF CHAPTER 8**

_Yamisui: I'm going to be making these chapters a lot shorter from now on; those thirty-page chapters were burning me out. That, and I'm a review whore and everyone knows more chapters equal more updates equal more ascensions to the top of the list and more hit counts . . ._


	9. Assassins' Ring

_OC List_

_Arashi Shikyo: Rain ninja, servant of the Water-lord _

_Garyu: highest feudal lord of the Water Country_

_Chizuru: the Water-lord's wife_

_Moritome: currently the highest ranking officer among the Heikou, now that the Elite are dead_

_Heikou: the swordsmen who act as guards for the city_

_the Elite: the most skillful Heikou, who act as both ambassadors and honor guard for Lord Garyu---or at least they did until they got whacked_

_Toru: Moritome's son; a Heikou swordsman. However, he's been revealed to possess chakra-molding abilities, despite the fact that the Heikou hate shinobi, and he has become instrumental in the kidnapping of Chizuru_

**o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o**

**o o Chapter 9: Assassins' Ring! The Maze Beneath the City o o**

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Sasuke's quick reflexes alone saved him from dying immediately.

Naruto's saved him from dying.

In the darkness of the Water-lord's chamber, Sasuke heard steel singing through the air and lurched backward into a bridge. Felt the _katana _blade pass over him, a hair's-breadth above his nose. Had he not moved in time, it would have been cloven in two. In darkness, he faced the distinct disadvantage of being unable to use his Sharingan as well as being naturally blinded. Whoever these enemies with the blue helix masks were, they were only using _taijutsu, _and he couldn't read their movements beyond the sounds of air whooshing past or the rasp of steel as they drew their _katana. _

'_Sound,' _he thought, rolling out of the bridge and scuttling spider-like along the floor. _'Shit! Sound! Even using chakra I can't move lightly enough to stop the tiles from ringing!'_

A blade sang past his face, grazing his left cheek and ear and drawing blood. He lurched sideways, only to be met by the cold swish of air from a _katana _stabbing just past the crown of his head and sinking into the tile with a discordant jangle. Reacting on instinct, he spun on one hand, jack-knifing his legs upward to kick the sword's wielder. But his feet went sailing through empty air instead.

A hand wrapped itself around his ankle, catching him fast in an awkward hand-stand. He kicked upward with his free foot and felt it connect with skin and bone. The owner of the hand grunted but didn't let go, and the next thing Sasuke knew the room was exploding around him.

The first second, there was a brief flash of fire, illuming the exploding tag and _kunai _and the masked enemy into whose chest it had been thrown. The blue helix face snapped downward from the impact of blade into breast. Then the man's body burst in all directions, in a rush of flame and plasma and bits of wood from the mask. Sasuke would have been thrown backward from the shockwaves, but the hand on his foot held fast. Even as his torso pin wheeled backward and his teeth clicked hard together, he found himself yanked up into the air, and then pulled in tight against someone pressed into a corner of the ceiling.

"What the hell? The bomb was to help you escape," Naruto groaned. His free hand was clapped to the side of his face, where Sasuke had kicked him. Sasuke could see a thin trickle of blood run over Naruto's knuckles from between his fingers, but that was all he had time to see before the flare from below died. The blast had temporarily deafened him, but already he could hear the loud hiss of smoke filling the room. Acrid and sharp, it burned his nose, mercifully dulling the more repulsive odor of burnt blood from the enemy who'd exploded. From the feel of things, the blood was all over his clothing.

"We _haven't_ escaped," Sasuke replied through gritted teeth, twisting into a more stable position beside his comrade. "They're still after us."

"Shut up. They'll hear."

And for once, Sasuke shut his mouth and gave Naruto's words due consideration. The two of them were crouched in the ceiling's corner, and the assassins were still searching for them on the floor in considerable confusion. He could hear their light footsteps ringing off the tiles.

"There aren't many more than ten of them," Naruto whispered. "You can count them by the different notes on the floor. If we can tell where they are . . ."

In the dark, Sasuke nodded, then grabbed Naruto's elbow and squeezed to indicate agreement when he realized the nod was pointless. Naruto was stupid, but the annoyance he'd caused by trying to play songs with the nightingale floor earlier was actually coming in useful.

"I have a plan," Naruto whispered, a touch more dramatically than was warranted.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. _'Obviously,' _he thought._ 'Get on with it.'_

And Naruto, who couldn't read minds, got on with it nonetheless.

He began a series of rapid arm movements that Sasuke correctly guessed to be a seal.

First came a series of explosions, and Sasuke braced himself against the ceiling, certain that these were more bombs. Then he realized that they weren't bombs but clones---hundreds of Naruto clones, bashing into things all over the room because there wasn't enough floor-space to hold them. The room was soon filled with cries of confusion from the enemy, who was baffled by the sudden presence of so many Naruto's. Mixed in with these were the outraged yells of the Naruto's themselves, angry that they had been created only to be destroyed as the assassins mowed them down with _katana. _

Naruto's idea had been a clever one, Sasuke gave him that. However, Naruto wasn't moving fast enough for Sasuke's liking. Latching onto his comrade's forearm, Sasuke began a mad dash round the perimeter of the wall, following the line between ceiling and vertical wall to avoid the majority of their pursuers. But he wasn't heading for the door. Rather, he was making straight for the side-door leading into what had previously been Sakura's quarters, which adjoined the Water-lord's room. Amid the confusion and the noise, they somehow managed to encounter only one attacker in their path, whom both of them dispatched at once with symmetrical, vicious swipes of their _kunai. _

Amid the confusion the sound of the heavy wood door panels sliding open was utterly lost, and a few seconds later they found themselves scuttling along the wall in the smaller chamber. This, too was utterly dark, but the door leading into the hall was easy to find. Naruto was about to fling it open when Sasuke grabbed his arm again.

"There are Heikou in the halls," Sasuke whispered. "_Henge _into one of them first."

Seconds later, the two were swimming upstream through a river of blue-clad samurai, who were pressing toward the Water-lord's bedchamber with swords drawn and ready in response to the commotion. One of them stopped Sasuke, blocking his way with the length of a blade.

"Where are you going?" the Heikou asked sharply.

Thinking quickly, Sasuke answered, "I'm going to find Arashi Shikyo. He's gone missing."

The man gave Sasuke a very odd, knowing look that Sasuke didn't fail to notice. Then he nodded briskly. "Moritome-_san _gave orders to search him out an hour ago. We're certain he's going to the Mist."

"You've sent a search party?" Sasuke asked, eyes narrowing. "When the Heikou Elite still haven't returned?"

The samurai's expression darkened further. "We're not expecting to find them alive."

Then he brushed past, and was lost in the crowd outside the chamber.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

The progress of the two Genin slowed considerably by the time they'd left the general vicinity of the Water-lord's quarters. They paused in an empty courtyard to reconnoiter, squatting in the wet grass to figure out where to go. Bizarrely, the place appeared to be a sort of abandoned training area on the outskirts of Mizutou's palace grounds. There weren't any torches lit therein; they were crouched in the shadow of the surrounding _dojo, _with sparse light from the coming dawn overhead. Sasuke's head swiveled right to left as he took in his surroundings. He was panting and wearing a frown.

"We have to find Toru and rescue Chizuru-_sama_," Naruto said, in low, urgent tones. "He's going to use her to find the real Water-lord."

"Forget his wife; she's not our priority," Sasuke reminded him. "She'll be fine so long as Toru thinks he can use her. What you and I need to do is find the Water-lord himself. Toru's a _shinobi _adept at hiding himself, who knows this city well. We don't. There's not a chance in hell we'll catch him on his own turf."

"Right," Naruto agreed. But he squinted a bit; Sasuke hadn't seemed so gung-ho about the mission's priorities earlier, when he'd wanted to chase down the missing Shikyo. "So . . . do you still have the map?"

Sasuke shook his head, but tapped his right temple with one finger. In the wan light, Naruto noticed a gleam of sweat on the pale skin of the other boy's forehead.

'_He used chakra when he shouldn't have,' _Naruto thought. _'The poison's gotten worse. Better we go after the Water-lord than try taking on a shinobi with him like this.'_

"If you wanted to hide from everyone, even your own guards, where would you go?" he asked, peering at his comrade's sickly pallor with poorly-concealed scrutiny.

"There are gashes in the posts here," Sasuke remarked vaguely, still studying the courtyard. "This place looks like it hasn't been used in a long time, but those marks on the pillars look fresh. And . . . too large and jagged to be from _katana_ . . ."

"_Oi, _Sasuke, help me out here."

With a brief shake of his head, as if waking from a reverie, Sasuke stopped rubbernecking and answered, "Underground."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

They were unable, in the end, to use the transformation technique to get outside the palace walls. Despite their luck finding the abandoned courtyard in which to rest, the perimeters were under severe lockdown, with the Heikou desperate to apprehend all of the assassins and possibly Chizuru's kidnapper. Naruto figured they were wasting their energy; Toru was probably long-gone. He and Sasuke employed camouflaging _ninjutsu _to scale the walls, then shinnied down the other side and took off at a dash. A quarter of a mile into the city---he had no idea where, though Sasuke apparently did---they found a sewer grate large enough for them to squeeze through. Beneath the grate, just below where the squares of blue-gray dawn light slanted in through the bars, was a set of rungs.

"A ladder," Sasuke observed, resting his weight on the first of them. Then he let himself drop the rest of the way with a brief hop backward.

Naruto screwed up his face in disgust as his comrade landed with a resounding squish, in the darkness some twenty feet below.

Sasuke's reaction to the filth in which he'd apparently touched down came echoing up the gutter-shaft. "Fuck."

Naruto, who'd found his _chakra _reserves already replenishing himself, spidered down the wall on all fours. It was pitch-black at the bottom, but he could tell his avoidance of the floor was a wise choice as he heard Sasuke sloshing over to him through what smelled like liquid cabbage-farts.

"There are tunnels here; I can tell from the echoes. Move over and let me up," Sasuke ordered, voice muffled from what was presumably his hand clapped over mouth and nose.

"You shouldn't wall-walk," Naruto argued, refusing to budge. "Kakashi-_sensei _said your _chakra _level is---"

"If I throw up I'll be dehydrated and even weaker," Sasuke snapped, squelching to the left and hopping onto the wall beside him. "Follow me."

Naruto obeyed, worried for Sasuke's health but at the same time disappointed that Sasuke did not have to wade through shit for a while. Wading through shit seemed like it would be a valuable humbling experience for the number-one rookie Genin.

"Oh well," he muttered.

Sasuke was correct about the tunnels---extremely so. There were a lot of them. A whole lot. Curving this way and that, or running straight and perpendicular to each other. Most of them were slimy and pungent, though a few were caked with hard clay and dry as a bone from the feel of things. Some were so narrow they could only be traversed at a crawl, with no room to turn around once inside. These they avoided; meeting an enemy in such closed-in spaces would be disastrous.

"Seriously, how were we supposed to find anything in here?" Naruto demanded after about fifteen minutes of this. "We need a flashlight if we want to find traces of people down here . . . and it reeks."

"No light," Sasuke said in a low voice. "I know where we're going."

"How?" Naruto asked, grumpily. "_This _wasn't on the map."

"No," Sasuke agreed, dropping his tone further still and slowing his pace along the wall. "But it's like the map. Just like it, in fact. A maze. A sewer, following the same pattern as the city above it."

"I'd still rather have---" But he found himself cut off as Sasuke clapped a hand over his mouth. The palm was sweaty and smelled faintly of the gook underfoot.

"Because in pitch black you can see light from far off," Sasuke said, in a voice down to the barest whisper.

Ahead of them, the rounded pipes that formed the sewer walls were beginning to brighten, and gleamed with the faintest ghost of a metallic sheen. Next came the shadow of a man, moving soundlessly toward them. As it rounded the bend ahead it took shape, darkening and thinning to the form of a top-knotted warrior bearing two _katana _strapped across his back, carrying what appeared to be a flashlight wrapped in cloth to mute its brilliance.

"Come down," Shikyo said, glancing up at the two Genin crouched and camouflaged against the ceiling portion of the pipe. "I returned to the city to find you; there isn't much time."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Sakura fell unconscious around the time Kakashi began to lose hope of reaching the Hidden Village of Mist. He wasn't far from unconsciousness himself, he knew. The numbness in his fingertips and toes had spread into his arms and legs, and his stomach roiled with nausea. It was a slow toxin spreading through his limbs, which confused him.

Why would the enemy want to kill him slowly but still be chasing him? And chasing him they were. He sensed them following him, watching, like vultures waiting for their prey to drop.

'_If they lacked the courage to attempt fighting me, they should have used quick poison,' _he thought. _'What is the point of letting me get close to the Mist before I die?'_

He squinted; his vision was blurring. Something gleamed ahead, between the trees. His eyes narrowed further, breath beginning to wheeze and burn his chest. There was a shape coalescing out of the forest ahead, shrouded in a haze stained green by the flora. It was far too solid to be natural.

'_Moss-covered wood?' _he wondered, changing course slightly and making for it. _'A wall? Have I reached it, then?'_

He hitched Sakura's dead weight higher up on his back, hooking her legs in the crook of each elbow. Quickened his pace. Stumbled.

The gleam ahead wasn't from the wooden structure. It was part of a web of wires. One caught him in the throat, another in the ankles, and he fell hard. His head slammed into the ground sideways as the wire at his neck snapped, sending blunt pain thick as a tree trunk from neck to tailbone.

The other wires had snapped as well, so quickly had he gone careening into them, and now they came drifting down on top of him. One landed just in front of his nose. There was a warm trickle from the cheek he'd landed on, which he presumed was from striking a rock, but he couldn't feel it. His face was going numb and slack.

He lay there, unable to move any more, wondering vaguely where Sakura had been flung by the impact. A thin strand of drool trickled from the corner of his mouth, sticking in the grass.

After what seemed like ages, he heard quick, light footsteps coming from somewhere behind him, and the faint clink of weapons. Unable to turn his head, he rolled his eyes upward and saw, to his surprise, that there were others coming toward him from the direction of the structure.

'_This was . . . all a Mist trap?' _he mused.

But instead of making straight for him, the two groups of _shinobi _clashed above him.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

"Give me one good reason why we shouldn't beat the crap out of you for deserting us!" Naruto snarled, jumping down from the ceiling and landing with a raucous splash in the sewage. He was too incensed to care how bad the stuff smelled any more.

Shikyo didn't flinch. He was standing atop the sludge, feet cushioned on _chakra. _

"There is no Village responsible for the attacks," he said darkly. "There is a conspiracy here, greater than anything we imagined. I aim to gather proof to exonerate the Mist. But I need your help."

"What conspiracy?" Naruto fired back, one hand still reaching into his _shuriken _pouch for _shuriken _he didn't have.

"An assassins' ring," Shikyo answered. "Come, follow me. We must find the Water-lord; I share Chizuru-_sama's _knowledge of where he hides. I'll explain as we go, but _come. _There isn't time."

"But---"

"We follow him."

Naruto glanced at Sasuke in surprise as the other Genin brushed past him, approaching the impatient Rain ninja. "He'll lead us to Garyu-_sama._"

Once again, this time in the dim glow of Shikyo's flashlight, Naruto found himself looking at the dark square of Sasuke's receding back. Grimly, he shut his mouth.

'_Where are you really going, Sasuke? Why do you trust this guy so quickly?'_

But he followed.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

When next the world swam into focus, Kakashi found himself lying face up, on turf much softer than before. His face was dry; in fact, his whole body felt dry. His tongue felt like an empty sponge. But his muscles were sore, which meant he could feel again, and even feeling bad was better than feeling nothing at all. In his opinion.

"Sakura," he rasped, turning his head. He was lying on a bed, he realized. A bed with gray sheets. Sakura, to his relief, lay on a bed next to his, asleep. Her breath was slow and even, and much of the color seemed to have returned to her cheeks. She was no longer wearing her disguise, which had become quite mangled on the Mist-bound journey, but a gray shift of sorts that was a little too big for her. Her thin arms and legs, sticking out from the sleeves and bottom, looked very fragile, as if she were a sick little girl instead of a trained killer.

Her frailty reminded him a little of a memory, which he had no desire to revisit. Instead he pushed himself into a sitting position, and found to his surprise that the vertigo from the poison was gone. As was the strip of cloth he'd used to replace his _hitae ate _while disguised as the merchant---the strip which had covered his Sharingan eye.

There were no windows in the room; only two thin strips of fluorescent lighting in the middle of the ceiling. The place was Spartan and spare.

There was a door, though. Just as he noticed the door, its lock turned with a complicated-sounding series of clicks and gears grinding, and an old woman entered bearing a pitcher and a glass. Kakashi made no move toward the door or the woman, though he kept his eyes on her as she shuffled toward him, grumbling.

"It's rude to stare," she said, setting pitcher and glasses down on the small nightstand between the beds. "You should know better."

Her back was hunched, and her face was so lined with wrinkles it might have been carved from the bark of a tree. She wore blue robes, and wore her hair pulled back in a severe bun, from which a few haphazard locks had escaped and stuck out as wisps that framed her face.

"Where have you brought us?" Kakashi asked, ignoring her unfriendly greeting. "We were en route to the Hidden Village of Mist to warn them of the dangers in Mizutou. Then I was attacked."

The old woman squinted one eye at him, then let out a brief, throaty cackle.

"The hell you were, boy. We've treated the girl; she suffered Aoite poison. You were heading to the Mist to steal the antidote, no doubt." She stepped back from the table, resting gnarled hands on the small of her back and pursing her lips. Kakashi frowned, ignoring the way dehydration made his temples throb. There was something unmistakably judgmental in the way she regarded him; she was waiting for something. Unlike her weathered complexion, her eyes were a keen blue, sharp and startling as a _kunai _blade.

Eyes that looked like they'd know a lie when they saw one. So he decided to begin sipping the water and to tell her the truth.

"Yes, I would have stolen the antidote if it would've saved her fastest," he admitted, affecting a somewhat sheepish expression and scratching the back of his spiky hair with one hand. "But also to warn the Mist, if possible."

"You're from the Leaf, aren't you?" the woman demanded, sneering at him. "Stupid boy, risking war between us for the sake of a waif like that one." She jerked her head once, indicating Sakura without taking her eyes off the Jounin. "Your Hokage ought to string you up by the heels, foregoing the mission for one person's sake."

'_Ah,' _Kakashi thought. _'So I have indeed reached the Mist Village. And this is my interrogator.' _Aloud, he answered, "We were hired by the feudal lord of your own country, who believes you're behind the attempts on his life." The woman snorted derisively, but he took a deep breath and continued. "I've since come to believe otherwise. The killers use the _Shinkuhana _technique, which I know the Mist have forbidden."

She cracked a grin, revealing crooked teeth. "Heh. The Mizukage ordered all Crimson Blossom users killed."

'_Brutal, as always,' _Kakashi thought. _'And effective. How many has the Leaf allowed to live that should have died? And we've paid for our compassion, dearly, over the years.' _He was thinking of Orochimaru. Of Itachi. And of the woman who betrayed the Leaf to the Stone, before the Third Great Ninja War.

"But you know that _jutsu_, don't you, Hatake Kakashi?" Her grin thinned and turned knowing. "We have record of you, been watching you since you took the Chuunin Exam here nineteen years ago. You've got yourself a new eye since then, but you're still the same brat."

"Time has taught me to care for my comrades," Kakashi corrected her. "My ruthlessness won me Chuunin rank in the Mist arena, but I've grown out of that since."

"Mm." The old woman pursed her lips, folding her hands behind her. "The Mist have grown, too, since you last set foot in the Village. But no tree's trunk can be perfectly straight if the roots are crooked. Compassionate Kakashi-_san, _you return to us now to save your comrade. But you wield the same _jutsu _as those who would frame the Village for our feudal lord's murder. Why did you learn it in the first place? For vengeance?"

Kakashi cast a brief, furtive glance toward Sakura, making sure she was still asleep. "No reason. I was neither reasonable nor rational when I chose to learn it."

Her eyes narrowed, and she grinned again. "Oh, you had a reason. The Crimson Blossom kills you. There is _always _a reason."

He swallowed hard, willing her to see the truth in both his eyes. "To protect the Leaf."

She turned away, began shuffling along the cold cement floor. Pacing, he realized. His answers were making her think.

"Another of my comrades has Aoite poisoning," he told her. "He needs your help. Why did you attack us while we crossed the sea? We hadn't broken any part of the treaty the Mist---"

She stopped pacing. Spun on her heel to face him again, with a sharpness nothing like an old woman's. "Why do men risk their lives to kill, Kakashi-_san_?"

"Love," he answered immediately. "And hatred. Or both."

"_Or _. . ." She jabbed one gnarled pointer finger toward the ceiling. "Or . . . belief. A lone man does such things for love or hatred. But many men, as part of a conspiracy, are wielding this _jutsu. _They are not Mist and they are not Rain; they have no Village loyalties. Men like that, they're dying to protect something larger."

Kakashi frowned. "I've no idea what it could be. Some, if not all, of the Heikou members may well be part of it. They claim to hate _shinobi _but they use _ninjutsu._"

"I know that." She waved her hand impatiently. "We've long suspected they had _shinobi _reflexes. If you've seen them use _chakra _with that eye of yours, that's just confirmation. They've surrounded the Water-lord and convinced his samurai to push the Mist presence from Mizutou with their prejudice. They wanted us gone so we couldn't watch their movements."

"But your spies have infiltrated the city, haven't they?"

She fixed him with a penetrating stare. "Every spy we've sent for the past month has died. Disappeared, not even a shred of flesh from the corpse to be found."

Kakashi's frown deepened. "The Heikou haven't reported those deaths. You'd think they'd jump at the chance to claim the dead spies were assassins, to further incriminate the Mist."

"It takes _shinobi _to kill _shinobi,_ Hatake Kakashi. If there are assassins hiding among the Heikou, then they do their killing in the quiet and the dark."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

The tunnel was black and silent; the Rain ninja had extinguished his light.

"I've found proof at last," Shikyo said, "of the existence of an assassins' ring. Beneath this city is a maze of tunnels, and at the heart of these there is a chamber containing a scroll. A duplicate of the forbidden _Shinkuhana _scroll. That is where they must have met, and learned it. They are missing-_nin _and ordinary men alike, working toward the same cause."

Walking beside him, Sasuke swallowed hard. "And what is that cause?"

"Balance of power." There was a brief pause, in which he could tell Shikyo was deciding what to explain and what to hold back. As the sole Uchiha survivor, he was used to adults being careful how they phrased things around him. In this case, it meant he probably shouldn't trust Shikyo. But he wanted something from Shikyo.

"What does that have to do with the Water-lord?" Naruto cut in, doubling his pace to draw abreast of the two. Sasuke could've strangled him.

"This assassin's ring calls itself 'Heikou,' also," the Rain ninja went on, ignoring the interruption. "The name signifies 'even scale,' or 'balance,' as you know, but the meaning itself is deeper for them. They believe that _shinobi _were a mistake---mutations, freaks, and a threat to peace. There were more savage times that you children would not remember, when _shinobi _clans warred with each other for land and money. The feudal lords of all the countries, foreseeing that all this senseless bloodshed would destroy the world, promised their local ninja clans wealth and military control if they would but unite and serve the greater good of their countries.

"It was a system that worked. Each country was balanced, with its own Village protectorate and its own government. But the Heikou believe that power is the source of bloodshed, and that _shinobi _ultimately crave power."

In the dark, Sasuke scowled.

"They believe the control of the feudal lords must be protected at all costs," Shikyo said. "Even to the point of assassinating rulers whom they see as weak. Like Garyu-_sama, _who was too cooperative with the Mist for their liking. As I've learned recently, in the past when feudal lords grow too weak, the Heikou took matters into their own hands. They had other methods for controlling the ninja of their countries---methods that had little to do with putting anti-_shinobi _rulers in charge. They can't find the Water-lord now, so their plan is backfiring. So they're starting to resort to the second option . . ."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

"Hiring you was not the Water-lord's idea," the old woman said disapprovingly. "One of his Heikou must've advised it. And now, thanks to the deaths of our spies, we don't know where he hides, so we can't protect him. But the spies we stationed in the Wave Country warned us of your passage. And we knew the second you set foot on the Water Country's isle without proper _shinobi _identification, you were in violation of the treaty between the Leaf and the Mist. The treaty's precious and delicate; it's the only thing standing between us and a fourth great ninja war. You're not so young you don't remember the third war, are you Kakashi-_san_?" She cocked one sea-blue eye at him, tilting her head to the side.

Kakashi pulled his legs into a cross-legged position, resting his forearms on his thighs. "I remember," he answered gravely.

"Then you _know _we had no choice but to try and kill you four before you made port in our country," she snapped. "But we failed. And you four made it to Mizutou. And now you've come here, and we can't ignore the violation of the treaty any longer. We may soon be obligated to act against the Leaf, by the laws of the Water Country itself. It's as if these assassins of yours, _shinobi _or not, want to start a war between us. And such a war would only serve to weaken us, to destroy all we've built. For the sake of protecting ourselves, and our country, Kakashi-_san, _we would rather kill the few to save the many."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

"It is 'the death of the few for the good of all,'" Shikyo said grimly. "To protect entire countries, the Heikou want to keep the _shinobi _Villages small and powerless."

Naruto hurried forward a few steps. He couldn't figure out why he kept seeming to fall behind Sasuke and the Rain ninja. Shikyo was keeping a fast pace, and made sudden sharp turns on occasion as they walked, which didn't seem to hinder Sasuke but which occasionally caused Naruto to walk into a wall before spinning a quick about-face and catching up again.

"How does assassinating Garyu-_sama _help them do that?" he asked. Shikyo couldn't seem to stay on the topic that was most important, in his opinion. And Sasuke, silent and morose, seemed more interested in Shikyo than in the mission.

"The Heikou will blame his death on the Leaf," Shikyo replied. "To break the truce between Konoha and the Mist. To see the two most powerful Villages at each others' throats, until they've cut each other down to size."

"Hell no," Naruto breathed. He knew Konoha was already weakened from the battle with the Sound-nin . . . More loudly, he asked, "But you said they can't _find_ the Water-lord. What's the second option?"

Ahead of him, he heard the footsteps slow. One set of footsteps.

"To break the truce between Leaf and Mist two things are needed," Shikyo said, and there was something odd in his tone. "The first was the fight at the cliffs. Proof of hostile intent . . ."

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

"You've violated the treaty," the old woman said, her voice stern and terrible. "You've left us no choice. The Leaf brought violence to our borders, when you fought us at the southern cliffs. And we have no proof of who are real enemies are . . ."

"You said you will 'soon' be obligated to act," Kakashi said slowly. "Why haven't you acted already? If you'll do anything to stop a war, why are Haruno Sakura and I still alive?"

There came a brisk tap at the door, and his interrogator turned sharply, distracted. "Come in," she called. Then her piercing gaze swung back to him. "You're still alive because the Mist aren't as ruthless as we once were. There isn't sufficient proof yet that the Leaf have sent unwelcome intruders to the country under our jurisdiction. You, Kakashi-_san, _have dual rights to passage in both the Leaf and Mist Villages, dating back to your participation in our Chuunin Exam. We've already figured out that Haruno Sakura has no bloodline limit genes. There's no blood-link to Konoha, so we can use that to forestall saying the treaty's been officially broken."

Though his unmasked face betrayed no emotion, Kakashi's mind was in turmoil. _'Not good. How can I ask the Mist to treat him, when bringing him to them means direct proof of Konoha's hand in the deaths of those we fought on the southern cliffs? His blood alone would betray him . . .'_

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

"Uchiha Sasuke, I've come to find you because we need you," Shikyo said.

Sasuke stopped in his tracks, surprised. His concentration was jostled; the sludge underfoot sucked at his sandals as he sank into it a little ways. "Why me?"

He felt Shikyo's earnest grip at his elbow, so hard it cut off his circulation almost immediately.

He felt the Rain ninja's hot breath as Shikyo bent nearer to him. "Because you are Uchiha. Because your bloodline limit marks you clearly as a Leaf-_nin. _Because you killed Mist-_nin _at the cliffs . . . you are the one we'll use to start a war. We have but to bring you to the Mist---"

"You---" Sasuke began, but he was startled by a sudden pinprick sensation on the underside of his elbow. "What?"

Wrenching his arm free, he swung round, stretching both arms out to feel about in the dark for Naruto.

There was no one walking behind them.

One hand flew to his elbow, felt the thin trickle of blood.

"You---needle?" he managed. Then his head reeled, and Shikyo's arms closed round him like a vise as he fell.

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

Walking behind Shikyo, Naruto realized he wasn't hearing Sasuke's footsteps.

"I don't care what the Heikou's second option is," he declared, jabbing a finger toward the Rain ninja's back. "What the hell's going on here? Sasuke?"

Shikyo stopped dead in his tracks, causing Naruto to bump into him and bounce back a foot. Naruto heard the swish of his clothes as Shikyo turned to face him. And the fainter, more wicked sing of needles sliding into position between Shikyo's fingers.

"I used _Mizu Bunshin _to split you from him," the Rain ninja explained, in a tone infuriatingly mild. "He's wandering somewhere else with my clone, and a clone of you. My clone of Sasuke-_kun _has vanished now, but I don't need him anymore. You and I have walked as far as we'll go."

"Wh-what?" Naruto sputtered, edging backward and slipping one hand into his empty _shuriken _holster again. "What the _hell_?"

There came the soft splash of sandaled feet, advancing toward him.

"The Heikou's second option," Shikyo said softly, "is to bring the Uchiha boy to the Mist. He bears Aoite poison in his body from the fight at the southern cliffs and Konoha's famed bloodline limit---both of which the Mist must consider direct proof that Konoha has violated the treaty. But we only need one to start the war. And you . . . you are unnecessary."

Sinking into a fighting stance in the pitch black, Naruto began to gather _chakra _in his palms. He sensed that if he didn't come at Shikyo with everything he had at lightning speed,he was going to die.

Then he heard a loud, strong splash, as of water jetting toward him from every direction. It echoed harshly in the tunnel. And he remembered Kakashi saying something about Shikyo's bloodline limit . . .

**o---O---o o---O---o o---O---o**

"That won't be necessary," the old woman told the man who'd just entered the room, bearing a tray of food. "No food for them. I want them kept weak, in case someone dares a rescue."

"Understood," the man replied, turning a smart about-face and exiting.

The woman followed him. "Here, I'll take that. You examine Hatake Kakashi. Make sure he's healthy otherwise."

He passed her the tray and she stepped across the threshold.

"We're your prisoners, then?" Kakashi called after her, bending sideways to see around the ninja medic she'd just ordered to examine him. "Prisoners until what?"

She paused, without turning around. "Until the Water-lord is found, and we are given tangible proof that the Leaf are here by his permission, to protect him. Or until we find proof that you're here with hostile intent. Then you'll be tortured for information and executed."

Overhead, the fluorescent light flickered, blinking gray.

"Please, something dangerous is going on in Mizutou," Kakashi insisted, starting to swing his legs over the edge of the bed to rise. "The Mizukage should hear my story directly." But the medic, a husky, unsmiling man of thirty, pushed him back onto the bed.

"To whom," the medic asked, "did you think you were speaking?"

The door swung shut behind the old woman with a clang like a death-knell.

END OF CHAPTER 9


	10. Fire and Water

_OC List_

_Arashi Shikyo:__ Rain ninja, servant of the Water-lord _

_Garyu:__ highest feudal lord of the Water Country_

_Chizuru:__ the Water-lord's wife_

_Moritome:__ currently the highest ranking officer among the Heikou, now that the Elite are dead_

_Heikou:__ the swordsmen who act as guards for the city_

_the Elite:__ the most skillful Heikou, who act as both ambassadors and honor guard for Lord Garyu---or at least they did until they got whacked_

_Toru:__ Moritome's son; a Heikou swordsman. However, he's been revealed to possess chakra-molding abilities, despite the fact that the Heikou hate shinobi, and he has become instrumental in the kidnapping of Chizuru_

**Chapter 10: Fire and Water**

The assassin crawled down the rough, sandstone wall, limbs crooked like spider legs, hands and feet soft and silent as a passing shadow. His eyes, trained to absorb minimal light to see in the dark, were fastened on the red head leaned against the wall ten feet below him. A thin line of sweat slid beneath the cover of his forehead protector, which bore the Leaf insignia. It trickled between his eyes, split over the bridge of his nose.

It took every ounce of his will to keep his breathing measured, so that it didn't rattle in his chest. He was dying, of a disease that made him spit blood when he overexerted himself, and he'd chosen this mission on purpose. He was tired of spitting blood, and he wanted his death to mean something.

He was going to die saving the world.

He was not really a Leaf ninja, of course, though he wore the flesh and genetic characteristics of a certain clan found only in Konoha. He was one of the Shokubai Clan, whose bloodline limit doomed them to live in the shadows and to die as the catalysts of war. They were shapeshifters---genuine shapeshifters, able to mimic the very genetic structure of those whose blood was injected into their own. They could never use the same _jutsu _as those they copied, however, owing to physical weakness. The Shokubai possessed incredible _chakra _control, but their bodies were weak and sickly. The entire clan suffered from a skin disease that rendered them permanently nocturnal, and they all had weak lungs. It was said of the Shokubai---when anything was said at all---that they were a people dying from the moment of birth. The best they could hope for was to die for a purpose.

His purpose was to kill Sabaku no Gaara. Or to die trying, and become a corpse identical to those of the clan he imitated. Even though he'd died, his body's shape would be perfect, so that no physical evidence could discern the truth. Neither Konoha nor the Sand knew of the Shokubai's existence, and they were never going to. Instead there would be suspicion, unease, and immediate investigation of why a Leaf _shinobi _had dared attack three Chuunin Exam participants returning peaceably to their homeland.

That was the Heikou method: foment chaos among the power, let them destroy themselves, and the world keeps its balance.

He swallowed hard round a lump in his throat. Swift as lightning, he drew one hand in to his chest and formed the Shinkuhana seal. Licked his seal-hand's two longest fingers, smearing them with the blood he'd been holding in his mouth. The other bloodline limit of the Shokubai was that they were able to see in the dark quite well. The only light here was a lone candle ready to fizzle out on a table in the corner, but he could see every rise and fall of Gaara's chest.

The bead of sweat on the end of his nose finally slid off and fell. Sucking in a sharp breath he jabbed his fingers downward, knowing he was going to have to outrace the droplet before it awoke his target.

Quick though he was, the droplet beat him, landing soundless in Gaara's nest of hair. Gaara's head snapped upward, and the next thing the assassin knew there was a horrid, stinging pain in his wrist. He attempted a swift withdrawal, jerking his arm back, only to realize that withdrawing was easy because he'd left his hand behind. It seemed to wave mockingly at him, suspended in the grip of Gaara's sand.

Then time slowed down, mired in pain. He was aware of his target's pale face upturned, of intense green eyes regarding him dispassionately. He was aware, in a flash of insight fleeting as a lightning-strike, that even with his near-perfect night vision he hadn't seen the thread-thin cloud of sand ring his wrist and close like a garrote, severing flesh and bone. He was aware of the sudden rush of blood from his head as blood spurted from the stump, speckling Gaara's skin.

He was aware of Gaara's red-flecked lips moving, pronouncing with cool detachment: "They should have told you; I never sleep."

Then his awareness was swallowed up in a brilliant, terrible wash of cold fire, swallowing him inside and out. The room was gone, his target was gone, and he was speeding toward death, falling into the white vortex of a death god's yawn.

**OoO OoO OoO**

"He died from a severed hand? Unbelievable."

The other two Sand Three had joined their brother in the small, dusty shed they'd claimed for the night. They had reached the city of Gairu, and instead of staying at one of the large city's inns they'd chosen a place on the outskirts again, far away from civilians. When wolves were chasing you, you didn't sleep among lambs.

Temari stood with her hands on her hips, frowning down at the body stretched out on the floor. She and Kankurou had been sleeping in a nearby alley at Gaara's request. He'd decided they should sleep separately to test his theory that the assassin was after him, specifically. It seemed he was right. Gaara stood beside her, a silent, heavy presence. By now he was probably so used to people trying to kill him that these assassination attempts hardly fazed him. It made her a bit sad, but also somewhat relieved that he was holding his own against these strange attacks.

Kankurou, who'd been squatting and examining the body, sank back onto his heels with a sigh and sat.

"This one didn't die because of anything Gaara did," he told them, rubbing his forehead with the back of one hand. "He killed the woman claiming to be ANBU with his sand, but this one is something else entirely."

"I used sand in this case to stop the _jutsu _he was about to use," Gaara intoned. "He made the seal with his left hand, so I cut it off."

Temari bent and picked up the severed hand, holding it gingerly between her thumb and forefinger. She wasn't a squeamish girl, but something this strange merited caution.

"There's blood on his index and middle fingers," she observed. "Odd---summoning techniques usually have it on the thumb . . ."

"I felt him die," Gaara murmured, still looking down at the corpse. "It was cold. Like someone had opened a freezer door. Like the woman in Kazeya Town. There must be a connection."

"I can't believe it," Temari said sharply, setting the hand down, leaning over and lifting one of the corpse's eyelids. "Could Konoha possibly be behind this? So soon after the Sand-Leaf treaty was signed?" What she really meant was: "I don't want to believe it."

If Gaara was right and this killer was from the same group as the last, it was another imposter. But from Kankurou's examination, and from what she could determine, the physical evidence seemed irrefutable.

The assassin was one of the Hyuuga. And thus far, they had no way of disproving it.

**OoO OoO OoO**

**Somewhere in the Water Country**

Sasuke drifted in and out of consciousness. In his more cognizant moments, he realized that he was being carried on some sort of thin stretcher, suspended between the shoulders of two men in blue. When he rolled his eyes back in his head, he could see that one of them wore a forehead protector bearing the Rain insignia. But rolling his eyes back made them close, and he couldn't get a clear glimpse of the man's face.

As he lay there he tightened his muscles without actually moving his limbs, testing the extent of the damage the poison was causing. Surprisingly, there wasn't much pain; only a pervasive, cold numbness in his extremities. His face was moistened with a thin sheen of mist, and he couldn't feel the tip of his nose. The swaying of the stretcher and the soft murmur of his captors' voices was sort of lulling.

But Sasuke was not someone who appreciated "lulling." The current weakness in his body disgusted him. His lips were parted, and he was drooling a little from one corner of his mouth, and that reminded him poignantly of the horrible, unshakeable weakness that fear of Itachi had once instilled in his limbs. He hated every reminder of that drooling, whimpering child lying on the floor at his brother's feet.

And now, with supreme effort through the fog the drug had rolled into his brain, he focused every bit of his concentration on listening.

"What if he dies?" asked the man at his feet.

"He won't," came the response from behind him, from the man at his head.

Shikyo. It was Shikyo. Sasuke's blood attempted to boil in anger, but the drug had made his circulation sluggish and his chest felt tight and strange.

"The drug may slow the spread of the Aoite toxin, but if you give him any more you'll kill him with an overdose," the other one argued.

Shikyo's footsteps never faltered. "The Mist are going to kill him anyway. Once they verify that he's Uchiha, they'll go to war. And you can wager they will take him apart to steal his bloodline's secrets, to ensure that they win. Our only task is to get him to them alive."

Sasuke was greatly bothered by this, of course, because the drugs were numbing his brain, not his emotions, and he was poignantly interested in what came next, but unfortunately his brain decided to go gray for a while again.

When the seductive languor melted away again, it was to the awareness that his feet had jounced slightly as the other man carrying him stepped over something on the ground. The stretcher swayed, then stopped moving. And Sasuke realized that his captors had stopped walking altogether.

Next he heard a woman's voice, low and cracked and old. "You're trying to start a war. Did you honestly think we'd let you saunter in and _bring_ him to us?"

Rolling his eyes sideways, Sasuke was able to glimpse the newcomer around the back of his captor's head. She looked like she'd once been a tall woman, but age had bowed her back down to average height. Her hair was pulled back in a severe bun, from which wisps escaped and waved gently in the misty air. The lines at the corners of her mouth were deepened with resolve.

"I'm flattered you would deign to come in person, Mizukage-­'_baa-chan,_" Shikyo said tightly. Sasuke had the distinct impression that the Rain ninja wasn't flattered at all, and that they were fucked. But he had to give the man credit for balls of steel, because even in the face of the Mist Kage Shikyo kept talking. "But you know as well as I that your ability to kill the boy to avoid acknowledging the Leaf's presence here ends if he is borne across the physical borders of your Village." Shikyo nodded toward the forest ahead. "Besides, think what an asset the Sharingan be. The secrets of that bloodline that once made the Leaf so formidable. Don't you want it? I'm bringing it to you, gift-wrapped."

The old woman's lips pursed briefly. "Idiot. You're assuming, again, that I'm going to let you cross the borders. He has no consent from the Mist, and that is grounds for defensive measures. The Treaty of Water and Fire would be broken. And if we took the Sharingan, Konoha would go to war with us immediately, before we had time to research its secrets."

The mists began to rise around him, and Sasuke began to sink into them. His awareness of two things coalesced into realizations: one, his captors were lowering him to the ground, because there was going to be a fight, and two, there were things _moving _in the mist. Little things, like tiny moist insects, brushed the bare skin of his upper arms, his knees.

Looming in front of him, Shikyo's stocky form could be seen crouching into a wider stance, legs planted solidly on the spongy turf, the blue-black hair from his topknot cutting a stripe down the middle of his back. He reached both arms behind his head and drew, from the crisscrossed scabbards fastened there, two _katana _that gleamed a startling, brilliant blue along their double edges. Sasuke blinked, watching him lower the naked blades. The Genin was starting to feel very odd---less detached, somehow, and it hurt. The drug Shikyo had given him was apparently wearing off; a burning, tingling sensation was returning to his limbs. And it also seemed to be making him hallucinate, because he could _see _the things moving in the mist, gravitating through the air toward Shikyo's _katana _like trails of ants to spilled sugar. Little dots like insects, gathering round Shikyo's body.

"Arashi . . ." the other captor murmured, and it sounded like a warning. "You---"

Shikyo flashed forward, swift as a lightning strike. His arms swung out, then arced inward. Blades sang and sliced down, toward the Mist Kage. She stood complacent, watching them come. Too slow to move as they took her head.

**OoO OoO OoO**

**Mizutou**

The blow bit deep into his shoulder, slicing into bone. The seal Naruto had been forming never reached completion as the nerves in his right hand went dead. The impact of the strike caused the flashlight Shikyo had tucked into his belt to jounce free, hit the ground and roll, sputtering, through the water quickly flooding the filthy ground.

If he'd been an instant slower, Naruto would have lost an arm.

But his body reacted on its own.

There was no pain at first; the cut was wicked and precise. Skin parted like water around the unseen blade. It was the pressure he felt. Instinct dropped his stance, spun him on one foot, lashing out with the other to kick his enemy's feet out from under him. It was like kicking a tree trunk---his foot connected with the back of the man's knee and bounced off. Off-balance, he saved himself from falling by torqing the rest of the way around to his enemy's other side. Then the pain hit, white-hot, flesh and cloth ripped as the blade tore free. He bit back a scream, forced _chakra _to his feet, landed hard against the stone wall.

The flashlight, now submerged, cast confusing, wavered gleams off of the rounded stone walls, distorting Shikyo's silhouette and flashing in the sword above the dark blood sluiced along its edge. Except it wasn't Shikyo. Crouched horizontally against the tunnel's side, Naruto saw his face in profile. In the split-second before the water clouded he saw a much younger man, lean and tall, long brown hair bound back, the legs of his blue _hakama _tucked into knee-high boots. The water from his _jutsu _sloshed repeatedly against them, swirling round his ankles as it quickly filled the tunnel.

"Toru-_san_!" Naruto yelled, outraged.

The young samurai nodded brief assent, but offered no justification. Instead the waters at his feet lifted and surged. Naruto dodged a sudden, roiling burst of water, which fountained up from the floor and struck the wall where he'd been previously with such force that it sounded like waves crashing on the cliffs. The sound echoed, thunder-clap loud, through the tunnel; Naruto felt it vibrate right down to the roots in his molars. Gritting his teeth he skittered along the wall as the water changed direction and gave chase, hammering at him as if he were an errant nail. Instinct told him to find a safe vantage-point from which to lower his defenses somewhat in order to counterattack---it would probably take a minute for the nerves in his arm to repair themselves so that his fingers could form seals. The problem was, there weren't any safe points. Which, much as he hated to admit it, meant running away was a good idea.

_Have to get out of here, _he thought desperately. _He knows this place too well; he's got the advantage. _

He darted down the tunnel, running in an erratic pattern along the walls and ceiling to impair his enemy's aim. But the water kept shooting after him, missing him by only a hair's breadth each time. And each time it was getting more deadly---the spray from its impact right next to him on the stone stung where it struck his cheek. Raising his good hand to his face, he felt something warm and sticky, and a second later tasted metallic salt at the corner of his mouth. The water had _cut _him. Somehow, Toru's technique used _chakra _to focus water into blade-like form. Swiping at the blood, Naruto recalled the gouge marks he and Sasuke had seen in the courtyard pillars hours before, and realized now how they'd gotten there.

_Just how many of the Heikou are part of the assassins' ring? _he wondered.

But he dismissed the notion quickly as the deadly water shot toward him again. He felt a sudden, slight breeze to his right, indicating the presence of a perpendicular tunnel, and executed a sudden dive into it.

The spray behind him ripped the shirt from his back as it sped past.

His breath whistled in his lungs; he'd accidentally inhaled some water the first time Toru had used his attack. That had happened because the water was softer at first . . . Naruto's mind raced, trying to figure out what that meant.

He heard a distant splash as the attack in the previous tunnel fell short. Then came the faint splash of ninja footsteps approaching. He didn't even bother glancing back; he turned another right into a much smaller, narrower tunnel. This one was filthier, and made him feel somewhat claustrophobic. He couldn't even get through this one on all fours; its tight proximity forced him to wriggle on his belly like a worm, scraping up the elbows of his shirt along the rough stone.

_Damnit, _he thought, breathing hard. _If I can't make seals it's too small in here for taijutsu. _

He wasn't afraid so much as frustrated---a long-range fighter, he hated being in a space this confined. There was a light ahead, though, that told him he was getting close to freedom. A faint square of moonlight, criss-crossed by grating, like a beacon on the floor. Eagerly he wormed his way toward it; anything to get out of this hellish darkness.

Water slammed into him so hard it knocked him straight out of the tunnel, and into the wall of the one beyond.

The crown of Naruto's head hit stone straight-on. Pain flashed through his neck, black stars swallowed his vision . . .

. . . and then he was standing in a cave, in front of an enormous set of bars. Behind them lurked an even more enormous furry head.

"Eh? This again?" Naruto scratched his head, squinting up at the gargantuan pair of eyes, which in turn glared down at him.

_LITTLE FOOL, _the Kyuubi rumbled. _YOU'RE GOING TO KILL US BOTH. _

The Genin folded his arms, scowling. "I can't summon the Frog Boss down here---he's too big. So what good are you?"

The long, vulpine tongue snaked out briefly, ran across a row of shining fangs, then vanished again. _MUCH AS I'D LOVE TO CRUNCH YOUR BONES, I CAN ALSO MAKE THEM KNIT. AND SEEING AS YOU'VE JUST MANAGED TO LET THAT STRUTTING SAMURAI BREAK OUR NECK, IT SEEMS YOU CAN'T DO THIS ALONE._

Naruto's hand flew to his throat. "I'm dying? That guy was that powerful?"

_NO, YOU'RE JUST THAT STUPID. _

He felt a peculiar warmth envelop his neck---warmth that was almost soothing, except it smelled like sulfur and dog-breath mixed together.

"Hey!" he barked, abruptly. "Don't call it _our _neck! _You're _inside _me. _You're just a visitor."

The Kyuubi laughed---a low, ugly sound. Sharp slivers of pain, short and intense as lightning-strikes, shot down Naruto's spine.

"Ow!" he bellowed. "What the he---"

The last word ended in a sickening gurgle as he opened his eyes and found himself lying on the moist, filthy sewer floor. His mouth was full of spit and blood. But a quick test of movement told him all he needed to know: his wounds were healed. Everything, even the cut on his cheek.

Toru was nowhere near caught up to him yet---it seemed the entire conversation with the Nine-Tails demon had taken place in the span of a heartbeat. Which made no real sense to Naruto, but then he'd never been one to demand that anything make sense. Plus being alive tended to make him not so picky. He was covered in sweat and shaking from the residue of pain, but now that he'd finally stopped moving something that had been confusing him earlier now resurfaced in his brain.

_We left the flashlight behind quite a ways back. But until I got here, there was no light, and he's not even caught up enough to be able to see me. So how are his attacks so accurate? _

Almost on cue, the water gathered from the floor around him and rose, undulating like a snake's head, above where he lay, distorting the light from the grate above into wavering shadows. Swearing under his breath, Naruto scrambled out from under it and darted up the wall. A split-second behind him, it hammered into the place on the floor where his body had been.

More specifically, hammered with concentrated precision into the places on the wall and floor where his blood had splattered from the previous attack.

_That's IT, _he thought, exultantly. _That's how it kept finding me in the dark. It's a jutsu that targets the enemy's blood! _

He wasn't bleeding any more, but his face and back were still wet with blood. As he ran up the wall, heading for the grating some fifty yards above, he tore off his shirt and swiped at his face and back with it. The water below was already beginning to gather for another attack; his best chance of making it to the grate and allow himself enough time to break through it was to confuse the _jutsu_ by removing the blood.

The vertical tunnel was growing narrower toward the top, until he was having to duck as he ran up it. Below him, the water solidified and began its deadly rush.

_Shit, shit I'm not going to make it._

The echo of the rush was deafening. There was nowhere to run but up, and he wasn't fast enough.

Then his infamous luck kicked in.

In a split-second, he saw a narrow tunnel perpendicular to his. Instinctively, he flung the bloodied shirt in his fist into it and kept sprinting.

The water was almost at his feet when it suddenly changed directions, chasing the shirt into the tunnel and no doubt plowing it into the rocky walls.

Naruto hit the grate at top speed, punching with all his might because he was only going to get one shot at this.

As it turned out, the grate hadn't been fastened very securely at all.

He burst upward into the cold night air a good ten feet, followed closely by the residual spray of the water _jutsu. _Had anyone been around to observe, they would have thought he'd just been shot from the mouth of a geyser.

He flailed a bit before landing, but the second he'd gotten his bearings he took off at a dead sprint again, heart pounding, up the side of a two-story building and into the shadow of its pagoda tier. There he crouched, blinking water out of his eyes, to figure out what to do next.

He wanted to go find Sasuke. But the assassins wanted Sasuke alive, and Kakashi might be able to find him first. And the Water-lord's life was definitely in danger---Naruto realized with a start that the longer he lingered here waiting for the cogs in his brain to finish grinding, the longer the helix-masked killers would have to torture Garyu-_sama's _location out of his wife.

_Ero-Onna-sama it is, then, _he decided with a grunt.

The trick was going to be finding her in this maze of a city.

**OoO OoO OoO**

**The Hidden Village of Mist**

"_Oi,"_ someone said softly, jolting Kakashi out of an uneasy sleep. Suppressing a groan, the Jounin rolled over despite the protests of his aching muscles. Since when had twenty-six begun to feel so old? Something paw-like poked at his shoulder, and he opened his eyes to find himself face to face with a concerned-looking Pakkun, peering down at him. Blearily, he remembered he'd summoned the ninja dog before lying down for some much-needed sleep. Then, when the guard had come in to empty the room's chamber pot, he'd used his Sharingan to hypnotize the man into believing Pakkun was a literal pile of shit.

"He dumped me into the plumbing system," Pakkun whispered, wrinkling his pug nose even further. "Had to swim for it. I also had to bathe real quick or the stench alone would've given me away." Pakkun no longer wore the kerchief on his back or his forehead protector. Apparently the smell hadn't washed out of those.

Kakashi scratched his head through matted, tousled white hair. "What have you found?"

The pug sank onto his haunches on the bed, frowning down at his paws. "I got back in here easy because the guard coming out of your room a minute ago was distracted. The Mist are under attack."

It never was content with rain; always had to pour.

"The assassins?" Kakashi hazarded a safe guess.

"No," Pakkun answered. "The Rain."

**END OF CHAPTER 10  
**

_Yamisui: Umm . . . sorry it's been so long . . . I blame school and work. I was writing my Masters thesis, then my previous laptop died, taking my thesis with it. Then I had to rewrite the thing in a month, as well as keep up with my three part-time teaching jobs and somehow passing my last particle physics course. Then I got a job that was, at first, requiring me to commute two hours in each direction. Now I'm moved and settled in and have free time again. So yatta, productivity resumes. You can expect there won't be a year before the next chapter is posted._


End file.
